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Critical Illness Insurance Explained: What is It?

Before defining what critical illness insurance is, let’s start with the basics and define what a critical illness is. When exploring the critical illness insurance meaning, it’s helpful to know that the plan refers to major health emergencies, like cancer, heart attacks and strokes.1

There may be other critical illnesses covered, but this depends on the insurance company you choose to work with and the fine print within each critical illness plan. With Aflac, you may be able to receive help with a handful of other illnesses. We recommend chatting with an Aflac agent to better understand the specific illnesses covered in Aflac’s critical illness insurance plan.

What is critical illness insurance?

Critical illness insurance is a type of supplemental plan that works with your primary medical insurance plan to help provide additional coverage. It’s sometimes referred to as life-changing illness and health events insurance.

Your major medical plan may be able to cover some of the costs that accompany a serious health event, but it’s not uncommon to be left with serious out-of-pocket costs. A supplemental critical illness insurance plan can help you pay for leftover expenses.2

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What does critical illness insurance help with?

Critical illness insurance usually pays you cash benefits that you can use to help with costs related to treatment and recovery. You can also use the critical illness benefits to pay for everyday expenses, like rent and groceries. Since most of these plans utilize lump-sum cash benefits, critical illness insurance can help with other areas as well, like transportation fees, childcare costs, and other treatment-related fees.2

How to use your critical illness insurance benefits

As noted above, some critical illness insurance plans pay policyholders lump-sum cash benefits that can be used however they are needed most. You could use these benefits to help pay for copays and deductibles, any missed income, prescription medication or other necessities. You decide where you could benefit from additional financial assistance.

Benefits of getting critical illness insurance

There are a handful of benefits that may make critical illness insurance particularly worth it for you:

  • Extensive Coverage: Critical illness insurance targets health events that can have hefty associated medical bills. So, it may be nice to know you have an additional supplemental insurance plan in your back pocket to help with out-of-pocket expenses.
  • Affordable Costs: Many of Aflac’s critical illness insurance plans are considered budget-friendly and may easily help complement your financial goals. Getting a quote and chatting with an agent can help you better understand potential costs.
  • Flexible Cash Benefits: You get to choose where the critical illness insurance cash benefits go — you don’t have to worry about strict benefit applications.

Alternatives to critical illness insurance

If critical illness insurance isn’t right for you, here are some alternative supplemental policies to consider:

  • Hospital insurance: Aflac hospital insurance provides coverage for hospital stays, surgeries, and related medical expenses. It can help cover costs not included in standard health insurance plans.

  • Cancer insurance: This type of supplemental policy is designed to cover the costs associated with cancer diagnosis and treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation, and other related expenses. Aflac offers cancer insurance with affordable premiums.

  • Short-term disability insurance: Aflac short-term disability insurance offers income replacement for a specified period if you are unable to work due to a temporary disability, such as a broken leg.

  • Accident insurance: Accident insurance from Aflac covers expenses related to accidental injuries, including emergency treatment, hospital stays, and medical exams.

Aflac critical illness insurance: get a quote

Now that you better understand what critical illness insurance is, you may feel it is a good fit for your unique needs. Looking at your family’s medical history and chatting with your doctor may help you understand your likelihood of experiencing a critical illness. If you want to learn more about Aflac critical illness insurance coverage, start chatting with an agent today.

Still have questions?

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