I’ve had life insurance since I was 17, health insurance coverage most of my adult life, car insurance, home-owners, renters and even postal insurance, but I’d never heard of Critical Illness coverage until recently. So I did some digging. It is fairly new in the U.S. and the growth in the insurance industry is still fairly slow. Knowing what I do now, I wonder why?
Critical Illness Insurance got it’s start in South Africa back in the mid-1980s, when Dr. Marius Barnard started noticing that patients were surviving catastrophic illness more and more. The problem was, medical advances helped patients survive at higher rates, so they survived the illness only to be left destitute on the other side. The had used up their life savings and often-times the illness left them disabled so as to not be able to return to work. Without the savings and the income, the patient was left in financial ruin.
Dr. Barnard came up with an idea similar to life insurance that would provide benefits to patients with catastrophic illness. It would pay benefits upon diagnosis, rather than upon death, essentially paying them while they recovered. He took his idea to the insurance industry and they liked it. Working together building insurance products that took into consideration the most common catastrophic illnesses like, cancer, stroke and heart attack, but also kidney failure, and others. They put together benefits that paid patients upon diagnosis so they were able to pay their mortgages, tuition for children and other bills, and eliminate financial worries. The policy replaces income lost immediately due to a catastrophic illness and has been a lifesaver for many people since Dr. Barnard took up the cause.
Slowly, in the U.S. insurance companies have been rolling out Critical Illness Insurance products over the last decade and I’m glad they are. I’m sure a more than few people I love would wish they could have known about it sooner. I’ve known several close relatives who suffered catastrophic illness in the last two decades. Based on what I’ve learned about who is affected by the impact of catastrophic illness; not only the patient and their spouse, but there is a ripple effect that touches the lives of several other people. With Critical Illness Insurance, that impact can be greatly lessened.
The professional associates of AC Financial know much more about Critical Illness Protection and will answer all of your questions at 800-564-3136.
