An accident, critical illness, or an extended hospital stay are unexpected events that can turn your world upside down. Thankfully, when that happens, your medical insurance can kick in to help with healthcare expenses; however, your medical insurance may not cover everything and can leave a gap, potentially leaving you with bills.
That’s where having supplemental health insurance comes in handy. It can help pay for deductibles, medical services or other expenses that your health plan doesn’t cover. Some supplemental plans even provide cash to help cover wages that are lost while recuperating from an illness or an injury, transportation costs due to a medical condition, as well as living expenses.1
Learn how you can have cost-effective coverage for life’s necessities when an unexpected health issue arises. Supplemental health insurance can help you in the following three scenarios.
You need to stay in the hospital
Nobody wants to go to the hospital, but many people are making that trip. In 2023, there were over 34 million admissions in all U.S. hospitals.2 And hospital stays are pricey. Thankfully, hospital indemnity insurance complements your health insurance, helping you to pay for additional costs associated with a hospital stay. It can be because of a serious accident or illness, elective surgery such as a hip or knee replacement, as well as hospital childbirth and post-birth.
Along with medical bills and health care deductibles, your supplemental health insurance benefit payments — delivered in one lump sum — can also help cover groceries, loss of income, travel expenses, childcare, and even a pet sitter while you’re recovering. It’s easy to get hospital indemnity insurance:
- Typically, there are no medical questions or health exams.
- Depending on the plan, coverage may be extended to your spouse, domestic partner, and/or children.
- It includes pregnancy coverage.
You have a critical illness
Health care costs come with a high price tag, especially when treating critical illness. And Americans are rife with them. Every year, about 805,000 Americans have a heart attack;3 and one in three people will get cancer sometime in their lifetime.4
Hopefully, you will never get critically ill, but if you do, it’s best to be financially prepared. Critical illness insurance provides a cash payment after diagnosis of a covered critical illness, including the ones listed above, as well as stroke, ALS, major organ or kidney failure, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and coronary artery disease that requires surgery.*
As with hospital indemnity insurance, the lump sum payment from critical illness insurance can go toward the same medical and living expenses. And it’s easy to get critical illness insurance:
- Typically, there are no medical questions or health exams.
- Depending on the plan, coverage may be extended to your spouse, domestic partner, and/or children.
- Plus, under some plans, you can get a $50 health and wellness benefit payable annually.*
You have an accident
Emergency Departments across the U.S. had 155 million visits in 2025.5 A dislocated shoulder or a fractured ankle or you child breaking a bone on the playground can hurt a little less when you have accident insurance. You can use your payments any way you wish to help cover deductibles and copays, rehabilitation and therapy, groceries, a mortgage or rent, and other everyday living expenses. It’s easy to get accident insurance:
- Typically, there are no medical questions or health exams.
- Depending on the plan, coverage may be extended to your spouse, domestic partner, and/or children.
When it comes to your health, a little extra coverage can help you feel better in more ways than one.
