This One Move Can Save You from Going Bankrupt if You Get Cancer

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. How many of you know of someone who had, or has breast cancer? My Grandmother, may she rest in peace, had breast cancer and a mastectomy at age 68. The cancer returned 5 years later and ended her life. One out of every 3 women and 1 out of every 2 men will get cancer. Fewer of us are dying from cancer, but fighting the battle is expensive and can break the bank. In the South the cancer ratio is higher. Basically 50% of people will get cancer down here. I have a lot of clients who grew up in Florida and now suffer from skin cancer. Probably, because if they used a suntan location, it didn’t protect them from the UV rays. It turns out that my Grandmother’s mom, my Great Grandmother who passed away when I was 17 died from Leukemia (another form of cancer) and my beloved Mother passed away 6 months ago after suffering for 19 months from non-small cell lung cancer. What are the chances that I am not going to get cancer? Slim. Do I have a supplemental cancer plan? You betcha! What good is a cancer plan? A cancer plan will pay you a lump sum of money from $5,000 – $100,000 to cover medical expenses and drugs if you have internal cancer. Less if it is in-situ or skin cancer. Some plans also reimburse $100 or more to get your annual mammogram or prostate check-up. Won’t Medicare cover all of my cancer expenses? Not if you want to see a specialist out of state and you have a PPO or HMO Medicare Advantage Plan. Mayo Clinic doesn’t take UnitedHealthCare Medicare Advantage Plans. Warning: You can’t get a Cancer Plan if you have cancer or had cancer in the last 10 year. Same is true for Heart Attack and Stroke Policies.

Oh, btw my Mom’s cancer drug after researching the carrier’s charges for the drug the cheapest carrier was HSCS aka BCBS of IL. Her medication cost $25,551 …. a month! The other carriers were charging twice that amount! OK, so she immediately ran through the deductible into the donut hole where she paid only 25% of the cost or $6,387.75. She also was taking other medications as well where she would have had to pay 25% on those drugs until her True out of cost reach $7550. Then she only needed to spend $1,277.55 per month on that one miracle drug that extended her life for about one year. However, the side effects were terrible. In the end we took her off of the medication and invited Hospice to administer morphine. So that one medication cost my mom over 19 months about $34,493.85 that Medicare did not cover.

Medicare also does cover long-term care insurance. My Mom had caregivers 24×7. One lovely woman worked 5 days a week 24 a day and then another caregiver would work the 48 hour shift. What do you think a qualified caregiver costs in suburban Chicago? Try $350 a day! Luckily, my mom had a long-term care policy, but because Mom started her coverage before a 90 day waiting period, it only paid 80% of her policy daily limit or 80% of $200 or $160 a day. This is one reason you need to increase your premium every few years to keep up with inflation. So Mom was paying $190 a day above and beyond her long-term care coverage. Despite having a Medicare Supplemental Plan F, the cost for just the last 19 months of her life with 24/7 caregivers cost Mom $109,804.17. This doesn’t include the cost of a hospital bed, hospital mattress, oxygen tank, wheelchair, etc, etc, etc.

So between that 1 drug and her out of pocket payment for her caregivers, she spent $144,298. That doesn’t include taxes on her condo, HOA fees, utilities, wheel chair, her insurance premiums and more. The point I am trying to make here is that having a Cancer Insurance Policy with a Heart Attack and Stroke rider on it is a very wise decision. Actually Heart Disease is the number one killer of people. If you are young enough (under the age of 50) or else wealthy, consider getting a life insurance policy that offers riders to cover long-term care, critical illness, or chronic health conditions that develops after you bought the Universal Life Insurance policy. Want to learn more? Please contact me.

Categorized in: Health Insurance