Insurance Center

A recent nationwide survey of employees of firms that include healthcare benefits for their employees reveals somewhat shockingly that most employees don't have an accurate understanding of what their benefits will cover. For example, with regard to cancer benefits, over half indicate no knowledge of their plan's coverage in this area. This is of importance since statistics show that more than half of cancer treatment costs are not covered by health insurance, according to Colonial Life's senior vice president of marketing and branding, Tom Gilligan, of the firm that contracted the study. The estimated cost each year to the American public for the treatment of cancer reaches in fact more than $219 billion, with only 41 percent of these costs being direct costs, expenses that are covered by most major medical plans, including such costs as hospital and doctors' charges and medications. The remaining 59 percent of costs, according to Gilligan, are indirect costs the consumer must actually pay for. Such things as lost wages or salary, deductibles, and the cost of travel expenses to and from treatment centers, as well as child care, and lodging and meals.

Gilligan says that in the healthcare environment of today, one that may be characterized as including double-digit health care cost increases, group health insurance plans benefits are no longer as comprehensive as they once were, meaning that employees are out-of-pocket for more of the included expenses that are not being covered by their health plan, along with the indirect costs relating cancer treatment. To cover this apparent short-fall in coverage, Gilligan suggests that a growing number of employees may be interested in purchasing a personal cancer plan through their place of employment. This is particularly true if cancer is known to run in their families. They would have to pay for the policy themselves.

If they or a family member are diagnosed with cancer, such plans offering personal cancer insurance through ones place of employment, can be used to complement any group health insurance benefits, thus helping employees to minimize their financial risk.
Survey Methodology

The survey was performed through Harris Interactive(R) which fielded the study on behalf of Colonial Life. The survey took place between July 31st Aug. 4th, 2008, and interviewed a nationwide sample of 2,889 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older. Included in the survey were 1,067 respondents who were both employed full-time as well as being enrolled in an employer-provided/spouses' health insurance plan. Through utilization of propensity score weighting, the data were weighted in order to be representative of the total U.S. adult population. This was done with regard to region of residency, age at the time of the survey, gender, level of accrued education, household income, race or ethnicity, and tendency to be online. There is no estimation of theoretical sampling error available.