Critical illness plans offer specialized care coverage that can help those struggling to pay out-of-pocket costs by paying for services conventional insurance plans do not. For example, critical illness coverage will pay a lump sum to policy holders hit with catastrophic ailments and unable to meet a high deductible for other policies.
“More employers are moving to high-deductible health plans as a way of reducing their overall employee benefit costs and as a result of that it’s putting more financial burden on employees,” UnitedHealth’s vice president for voluntary benefits Gary Harger told MPR.
Since 1999, critical illness policy sales skyrocketed from $8 million to $381 million annually. Some of the nation’s largest insurers reported double-digit annual growth of critical illness plans within the last few years, according to the article. Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group began offering critical access policies in 2011 and has reported strong growth ever since.
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