Most people are familiar with the cute little duck that loudly quacks “Aflac” on television commercials. While the company’s mascot is easily recognizable, many people remain in the dark as to what supplemental health insurance plans cover.

What are supplemental health insurance plans?

As the name implies this form of insurance provides supplemental or “extra” coverage; designed to fill the gaps and holes left by deductibles and co-pays in standard health insurance policies. Specific plans may cover additional items such as lost income or added cost of living expenses due to a long injury or illness. Supplemental health insurance is a cash benefit paid to the insurer based on the specific plan or policy. Policies vary with a number of plans available for disease specific insurance (cancer), accidental death and dismemberment, accident health and hospital indemnity insurance.

Is a supplemental health insurance plan right for you?

You may be wondering why you would need “extra” insurance if you already have health insurance. Purchasing supplemental insurance is a personal choice that depends on several factors such as:

• Do you have special risk factors?

• How much insurance do you want to carry?

• How much insurance can you afford to carry?

• How much savings do you have available in the event you were unable to work for an extended period of time?

Before purchasing supplemental insurance you should first determine the level of coverage that you have through your standard health insurance policy. If you have a good policy most of your health insurance bills should be covered.

Do you have specific risk factors that make it more likely that you may be in need of this type of insurance coverage? Retired persons, elderly persons, large families or self employed individuals may be less able to handle the onslaught of medical expenses that go hand and hand with a medical emergency. Anyone who would suffer financially if they were unable to work, may consider the cash benefits worth the relatively low cost of the premiums.

What expenses are covered by supplemental insurance plans?

We have established that this insurance covers “extras” that your standard insurance may miss. Here are a few examples of expenses supplemental insurance may cover.

• Transportation costs

• living expenses

• child care needs

• out-of-pocket hospital expenses

• diagnostic testing

• private duty nursing services

 

Insurance needs and personal finance decisions vary greatly from person to person and you should make any decisions regarding supplemental insurance benefits based on your specific situation.

 

Tags: coverage, extra expenses, insurance, supplemental health insurance

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 8:06 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.