During open enrollment, it can be challenging to identify what products are right for you and your family and whether they are worth the expense. While it is important to have a general understanding of what your medical benefits will cover, it’s also important to identify what coverages maximize your budget.
Although it may seem obscure, take the time to realistically assess whether you or other family members may need medical assistance for something like a pregnancy or broken bone. You’ll also want to account for genetic factors or any common medical issues that run in your family – like diabetes, cancer or heart disease.
Thinking about these aspects at a high level can help you assess your needs for various coverages beyond your typical medical insurance, like Accident and Critical Illness Insurance. When paired with your health insurance, these coverages can provide an additional layer of financial protection in the event of a covered accident or critical illness.
What is a Health Screening Benefit?
You may feel uncertain about what products are right for your needs. But what if the product you enrolled in not only complemented your health insurance coverage, but potentially reduced your overall annual cost for benefits?
A great benefit that is included with our Accident and Critical Illness Insurance is the Health Screening Benefit. This benefit pays you and your covered family members for something you’re probably doing anyway, like visiting your doctor for an annual wellness exam, getting vaccinations or other medically-necessary screenings.
Let’s look at the numbers:
- Your Health Screening Benefit pays you and your covered dependents $501 for completing an annual health screening.
- If you have a spouse and two children, and you all have an annual physical and submit a claim, you would be paid $200 directly.
It really is that easy!
Why annual and preventative screenings are so important
The greatest benefit of an annual physical and other health screenings is knowledge, for both you and your physician. This information establishes a baseline of your personal health, so that your doctor can help detect unhealthy trends before they become risk factors.
Health screenings are important for both men and women because these simple tests can easily detect chronic conditions. The two most common conditions it can find are diabetes and high blood pressure. These screenings can also help detect certain types of cancer. Did you know that detecting breast cancer early reduces risk of dying from the disease by at least 25 percent?2
According to the National Health Council, nearly a third of the 133 million Americans with a chronic disease don’t even know they have the disease.3 It’s shocking, but almost 100,000 lives could be saved each year by simply increasing the use of common preventive care services, like patient-appropriate health screenings.
Be financially prepared for uncertainty
Medical bills are a common cause of bankruptcy in the United States. When paired with your medical insurance, Accident and Critical Illness Insurance can help financially protect you against large, unexpected out-of-pocket expenses.
So, when asking yourself, “Is Critical Illness or Accident Insurance worth it?”, think about your family’s needs, medical history and budget. And don’t forget to consider how a Health Screening Benefit can also help offset your total annual cost.
1 Subject to specific covered screenings and plan stipulations. See your plan for more details.
2 (November 2019). Mammography: Benefits, Risks, What You Need to Know. BreastCancer.org
3 (2020) The benefit of a yearly check-up. Guidestone Financial Services
4 (October 2015) About Chronic Disease. National Health Council.
5 Dobkin, PhD., Carlos, Finkelstein, PhD. Amy, et al. (September 2019). Myth and Measurement: The Case of Medical Bankruptcies. US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
