Some Life insurance contracts allow the policy owner to build cash value through your life insurance policy that accumulates over your lifetime. This is considered a living benefit of life insurance because, in contrast to a death benefit that pays out when you pass away, you can use the money while you’re still alive. Those cash values have mostly been limits of life insurance living benefits until in recent years a revised awareness and knowledge that statistical and actuarial analysis of deaths has given some companies in the Insurance Industry the vision that allows for them to offer Living Benefits policies with leverages such that one does not have to DIE to use the DEATH BENEFITS of life insurance policies.
Life Insurance policies with Living Benefits provide contingencies for major health care treatment costs such as cancer, a heart attack, a stroke, and other catastrophic illnesses insurance could be the only thing standing between you and financial ruin.
Those companies that are offering Living Benefits have varying conditions and limitations but you can generally expect provisions for the following:
Terminal Illness is determined when the insured is certified by a licensed physician as being terminally ill and is expected to die within 24 months of such diagnosis (12 months in certain states). This contingency allows the insured to accelerate up to 100% (with companies’ limitation) of the policy death benefit in event of a terminal illness.
Chronic Illness, Chronically Ill is defined as being unable to perform 2 of 6 activities of daily living (bathing, continence, dressing, toileting, eating, and transferring) without assistance from another person or being severely cognitively impaired for 90 consecutive days or more. Can accelerate 24% of death benefits annually or 2% of death benefits monthly.
Critical illness insurance contingencies help with the cost burden of surviving a heart attack or stroke and could leave a patient with insurmountable medical bills as the average life expectancy continues to increase.
The exorbitant costs of treating life-threatening illnesses are usually more than usually more what major medical insurance plans will cover.
Many people assume they’re fully protected with a standard health insurance plan, but the exorbitant costs of treating life-threatening illnesses are usually more than any plan will cover. Read on to learn more about critical illness insurance and whether it’s something you and your family should consider.
Critical illness insurance provides additional coverage for medical emergencies like heart attacks, strokes, or cancer.
• Because these emergencies or illnesses often incur greater-than-average medical costs, these policies pay out cash to help cover those overruns when traditional health insurance may fall short.
• These policies come at a relatively low cost. However, the instances that they will cover are generally limited to a few illnesses or emergencies.