What is Supplemental Insurance?

Ever seen the ad with the strange-looking goose quacking “AFLAC?” He's peddling supplemental insurance services.

Supplemental insurance takes charge where your regular health insurance fails. Consider a scenario where a sudden illness leaves you with large medical payments and loss of pay from being unable to go to work. If you have supplemental insurance, it will cover the lost income and living expenses.

Supplemental insurance can never be purchased by itself – it is only available in addition to an existing insurance plan. There are several different supplemental insurance plans available for a variety of needs:

1. If you are on Medicare, supplemental insurance can be purchased to pay for medical expenses not covered by Medicare, such as co-payment, deductibles, co-insurance, long-term health care, prescription drugs, or in-home and nursing-home care. Supplemental insurance that complements Medicare is called Medigap. There are 12 Medigap plans (labeled A through L), each catering to a different set of needs and offering different benefits.
2. Emergency hospital stays and outpatients services can be covered by supplemental insurances offering fixed cash benefits for these services.
3. Basic supplemental insurance can be purchased to cover routine preventive care.
4. Supplemental insurance can be used to cover expenses related to a pre-existing condition.

Supplemental insurance plans make the payment directly to you. This requires that you make the required medical payments to the provider upfront, before applying for the supplemental insurance payment. Do you have enough funds in the event of a medical emergency? This is an important consideration before you steer in the direction of supplemental insurance. There are many different companies, plans and limitations to supplement insurance.

Learn more before you commit your money. Experienced agents from Allied Brokers International can address all your insurance needs and concerns by phone at (650) 328-1000 or online at http://www.alliedbrokers.com/.