“Some of the nation’s biggest insurers are reporting double-digit annual growth for the plans in recent years. Companies embracing them include Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, which has been in the critical illness policy market since 2011. …  Global insurance giant Gen Re, which started backing the policies more than 30 years ago and tracks the market, says overall critical illness policy sales since 1999 have risen from $8 million to $381 million annually. The company says a typical plan for a 42-year-old nonsmoker with a $20,000 benefit would cost about $300 a year.”

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):
In order to keep health insurance premiums down while mandating a wide range of benefits whether people need them or not, the ACA (ObamaCare) drove deductibles through the roof. That unleashed CI demand among people worried about being unable to pay the high deductibles. Here we have yet another example of how the private market responds fluidly, fills in or corrects errors government makes.

‘Critical illness’ insurance plans surge in popularity

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