5 Facts about Cancer Insurance

Cancer insurance, like life insurance, helps protect your financial stability after a covered diagnosis of cancer. It can make life easier knowing you have extra funds to help pay for treatments or even supplement lost income, allowing you to focus on rehabilitating your body, not your bank account. The trade-off is that you may purchase cancer insurance and never need to use it. For further insight into how cancer insurance works, take a look at these five facts.

#1 You Must Purchase a Policy Before Being Diagnosed

If you have recently been diagnosed with cancer, and decide to buy a policy now, that policy will not cover any expenses associated with the form of cancer you have. In order for you to completely benefit from cancer insurance, you have to buy it before finding out you have the illness. Some companies will completely reject you from buying cancer insurance after a positive result. Others may allow you to take out a cancer insurance policy after diagnosis, but this insurance would only be put into use if you developed another type of cancer later down the line.²

#2 Most Policies Only Provide Benefits if Diagnosed with Covered Cancer

People hesitate to buy cancer insurance because they want to really consider whether it is a smart purchase for them. While some have a ‘better safe than sorry’ mentality, others don’t find it appealing to pay premiums every month for a policy that may not end up paying out. Most of the time, you only receive benefits of the insurance if you are diagnosed with cancer, though some companies may offer return of premium riders.²

#3 Cancer Insurance Can be Used as a Supplemental Health Insurance Plan

Cancer insurance is not meant to stand on its own. It will not give you the full amount of coverage typically wanted and needed by those who have dependents. It usually will complement whole life and term life policies.³

#4 Your Policy May Not Cover All Types of Cancer

There are many different kinds of cancer, but not all of them may be covered. For example, some policies will not cover non-melanoma skin cancers. Moreover, sometimes early stages of cancer will only get you a reduced payout where some of your cancer related medical bills are paid for but not all of them.³

#5 Most Policies Typically Cover Medical and Non-Medical Costs

Cancer insurance will generally cover not only medical costs, but non-medical as well. Medical costs are those such as copays, tests, treatments, and other procedures relating to the hospital. Non-medical expenses include things like income replacement and child care. This way you can be more financially stable in areas where you may not be able to keep up with as much as you were in the past.

When looking into cancer insurance, remember it may not be the best financial choice if you have recently been diagnosed because you won’t get any of the benefits for this type of cancer. Moreover, it may only pay out if you actually get diagnosed later in the future with cancer. Be sure to talk to a licensed life insurance agent for more details on cancer insurance to come to a decision about what is best for you.

Sources:
¹ Cancer.org, Cancer Facts and Figures 2019, 2020
² North Carolina Government, A Consumer’s Guide to Cancer Insurance, 2020
³ Verywellhealth.com, How to Decide if Cancer Insurance is Worth the Cost, 2020