October 4, 2009

In 1986, I took out an cancer insurance policy. I did this because both of my parents had come down with cancer. My father had died of it; but my mother survived eventually dying of heart failure some 29 years later at age 94.

Such a policy is generally not recommended by consumer advocates; however, with a family history of cancer, I went ahead and took out the policy 23 years ago. So for 23 years, I made annual premium payments.

Of course, I did not know that I would contract MM; however, once I contracted the disease, I did submit a claim about two weeks ago for my treatments to date and my claim was quickly paid. The payout was approximately equal to 10 years of annual premiums and is about twice my out-of-pocket expenses to date. My total medical expenses for everything related to my MM now total about $60,000; however, virtually all of this has been paid insurance and my out-of-pocket expenses (including dedcutibles) are less than $1000.

The claim forms were somewhat complicated; but the instructions were good; and if one reads them carefully, they are straightforward.

Since I am only in partial remission, it is likely that I will be submitting additional claims in the future.

For the readers of this blog, I would simply say that if there is a history of cancer in your family, then obtaining a cancer insurance policy might be prudent. What you get from such a policy is method of paying your deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.