Insurance plan which cover for cancer

Many of my patients asked me whether they could buy health insurance to cover themselves for cancer treatment AFTER they were diagnosed to have cancer. I told them "Sorry, its too late now, as once you are diagnosed to have cancer, the insurance company would normally not provide coverage for you on cancer treatment anymore".

Hence it is very important to purchase your insurance plan while you are healthy. There are many types of health insurance in the market, and sometimes its quite difficult to make a choice. Some of the criterias which you should consider while choosing a plan includes :

1) Cost of the premium : it should be affordable to you, and you need to know that the premium would go up when you are older. Please look at the premium in the later years too, as its not point to buy a high coverage plan with low premium now when you cannot afford it later on.

2) Details of the coverage : does it cover only inpatient treatment or outpatient treatment also (including outpatient chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy)

3) What is the annual limit of coverage : this is important especially if you are looking at cancer treatment which is very expensive. Also you need to see if there is a monthy sublimit which you may hit if your monthly cancer treatment is high.

For example :

1) Plan A : no monthy sublimit for chemotherapy, annual limit US $120,000

2) Plan B : monthly sublimit of US$10,000 for chemotherapy, annual limit US$120,000

In theory, both plan looks fairly similar as the annual limits are same, but in practice, plan A is more superior as there is no monthly limit. For example, if your course of chemotherapy is US$20,000 per month for 3 month, with plan A, the insurance company would pay for the full cost of treatment, but for plan B, they would only pay US$10,000 per month even though your treatment cost is US$20,000 per month.

You need to look into the find prints when considering your insurance coverage. If you are in doubt, consult your doctor for his opinion.

(Photo courtesy of www.humanillnesses.com)