What has a more affordable premium compared to individual disability insurance is ideal for spouses with high salaries and allows the insured to receive a lump sum benefit as needed - without any restrictions?
If you guessed it, a critical illness, you are more enlightened than most. In an effort to offer a variety of client asset protection, insurance against critical diseases is an important decision for your tool belt. These are also big differences, since many manufacturers do not offer this valuable coverage.
Below you will find everything you need to know in order to better serve customers and build your income by adding Critical Illness to your product package.
What is critical illness insurance?
Critical illness insurance provides financial protection when a serious illness occurs and a person cannot work and earn income. This health insurance helps cover medical expenses that are not usually covered by other insurance policies. Paid in lump sum amounts, it gives customers the freedom to use money where it is needed most - from medical bills to mortgages.
This coverage comes into play as traditional health insurance leaves consumers with more and more gaps in their coverage. As a result of high deductibles, co-insurance and limited coverage for non-traditional procedures, people may incur large medical bills that are not covered by their traditional insurance policy.
Critical illness insurance works by paying the costs associated with long-term recovery from the disease. He does not pay every medical bill, but instead provides a payment that can be used for any condition specified in the policy.
Who is the insurance company Critical Illness best suited?
Coating is best for:
• Spouses of highly paid employees - if a doctor, lawyer or executive body must spend time working to take care of a sick spouse, business sufferers. If the spouse has a critical illness, the family can immediately afford to hire at home, a nanny or other service providers to ensure smooth operation at home.
• Private customers and other highly paid employees who have limited their DI limits.
• High risk people are often not eligible for disability insurance. However, these professions, such as firefighters, long-distance truck drivers, or policemen, may qualify for critical illness insurance.
• Anyone who is concerned about the lack of adequate income to cover the critical costs of diseases not covered by traditional insurance.
Is critical illness insurance sold in addition to DI or instead of DI?
Disability insurance, sometimes called income replacement insurance, provides for a monthly payment if a person becomes disabled and can no longer work. DI policy pays a monthly income for a predetermined period during which the insured cannot work. In general, DI benefits are limited to a percentage of the insured’s regular income and stop after the disabled person can earn income or he no longer meets the definition of disability, as described in the policy. Disability policies often have a period of waiting from a decline in disability. In addition, unlike the benefits associated with a critical illness, disability benefits can be affected by any other income earned by the insured.
Critical illness insurance differs from DI in that it covers the cost of recovering from a major illness. These policies pay a certain amount to the insured or beneficiary when a qualified event occurs. Critical illness insurance provides full political benefit in the form of a lump sum payment for the diagnosis of a critical illness. Since each policy offers different protection measures, it is profitable for insurance brokers to sell both types of coverage. In many cases it is beneficial to optimize protection by selling two products together.
What are the key selling points and benefits of critical illness insurance?
The functions of the cover depend on the product, so make sure that you are familiar with the product you are selling. Most policies include the following key coverage features:
• Paid expenses: Long-term recovery from illness often involves many unforeseen expenses. Critical illness insurance fills in the gaps, so the person is not overloaded with medical bills.
• Guaranteed renewal: as long as insurance premiums are paid on time, the right to renew the insurance against critical diseases is guaranteed, which ensures customer peace of mind.
• Preferential benefit amount: upon the diagnosis of one of the covered conditions, the insured is paid a lump sum benefit. This payment can then be used for any condition specified in its policy. What the insured does with profit depends on it. He could use the money to pay medical bills, to cover his mortgage loan or pay utility bills. With a lump sum payment, the insured could even provide alternative care or hire a medical professional.
• Benefits paid directly to the client: insurance against critical diseases pays the insured directly, in addition to all other insurance coverage that he may have; which gives the client control over how the funds will be used. Coverage thus bridges the gap between the traditional health insurance policy and the actual costs incurred.
• Flexible coverage: in some cases, customers can choose a policy payable over 20 years or a premium returned after 15 years, so customers need and demand flexibility.
• Wide coverage: despite differences in company-to-company coverage, typical diseases and diseases covered by a critical illness include: ALS and other motor neuron diseases, Alzheimer's disease, benign brain tumor, blindness, cancer, coma, coronary arterial shunting surgery, deafness, heart attack, kidney failure, loss of limbs, major organ transplantation, multiple sclerosis, occupational HIV, paralysis, Parkinson's disease, severe burns and stroke.
What convincing facts and statistics can be used when talking to prospects?
The facts are convincing. Use these statistics to help your potential customers understand the need for:
• In 2010, an estimated 1.2 million Americans will have their first or second heart attack. Of these, approximately 62 percent will survive.
• On average, every 40 seconds someone in the United States has a stroke. Strokes are one of the leading causes of serious long-term disability in the United States.
• The five-year survival rate of all types of cancer in the United States is only 66 percent.
• Increased medical bills are a major cause of more than 60 percent of personal bankruptcies in the United States, according to a 2007 study conducted by Harvard University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition, more than 75 percent of these bankrupt families were health insurance middle-class families that were still covered by medical debt.
• Twenty percent of those with health insurance still cannot afford cancer therapy, according to a 2008 study by the American Cancer Society and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey showed that the year of treatment of blood cancer, such as leukemia, reached 2008 in the amount of 1 million dollars, exceeding the limits of most health insurance policies.
What questions should I ask prospects to determine if they are good?
To determine whether a prospect should consider covering critical illness, ask the following questions:
• What is your occupation? You want to look for a high risk profession or a chance of disqualification.
• How would your business and family be influenced if your spouse were criticized? Emphasize the advantage of immediate cash benefits.
• Do you have the discipline and ability to set monthly cash to cover long-term care due to a critical illness? And do you have enough income to prepare for such an event? In addition to paying daily expenses during illness and without work, medical bills can accumulate and destroy a previously financially sound family. Share with the prospect that the cost of a year of home care for your home is $ 50,000 or more. And a part-time assistant costs $ 10,000 a year.
Why should I add Critical Illness to my solution set?
As a result of rising medical costs, people living with longer and more traditional health insurance leave more consumers with deficiencies in coverage, and critical illness insurance should be an important element in a person’s overall financial protection portfolio.
With high deductibles, co-insurance and limited coverage for non-traditional procedures, people can incur huge medical expenses that are not covered by traditional insurance. And, since critical illness premiums may be lower than LTCI premiums, the likelihood of sales resistance is lower.
Most patients were affected by the disease, whether it be cancer, stroke or heart attack. They saw medical bills, financial stress and its impact on the extended family. Ask your customers if a one-time payment of $ 50,000 would reduce stress and ease family anxiety. Without the burden of accumulating bills, the family could focus on healing rather than trying to stay financially afloat.
How big is the opportunity? Is this a growing market?
As a market that has not been served in the past, there is much room for growth and prosperity with critical illness insurance. You can even significantly increase your income by adding this policy to your package. In addition to providing coverage to new prospects, you can return to current customers with a new policy.
Since coverage is a relatively new idea in the US, the market is not planned with competition. Since disability insurance comes with many limitations on terms and coverage limits, critical illness insurance is a valuable tool for adding to your arsenal of offers.
Because Americans live longer, they are at greater risk of getting sick. But since the world of modern medicine is flourishing, most people will survive and recover from their illnesses. However, their finances may not be so, if they are not covered by insurance against a critical illness.
How can I pack critical illness insurance?
Critical illness insurance can be packaged and sold in a variety of ways. This may be offered as an individual policy offered by an employer-paid program, as a supplement to a new or existing health insurance policy, or as an addition to a new or existing life insurance or disability policy.
Critical illness insurance can also be included in coverage categories, and claims can be made in more than one category. The largest categories will be common diseases such as conditions associated with cancer or heart problems. A customer can purchase a policy that covers only one condition, or a broader policy that covers more categories.
Bottom line? Now is the time! Provide critical illness insurance before the crisis.
No one likes to dwell on their own mortality, but they want to dream about the future - the future of lightness, peace and happiness. Dreams can be suppressed by the crisis of a serious illness, both long and short, if there is no financial protection. One way to ensure the realization of a dream is to invest in income protection policies. Critical illness insurance is one of those policies that cover the gaps that many other policies remain open. These policies are easy to use and are intended for all types of people. Start offering critical illness insurance today and protect your customers. financial futures while you help yourself.
