February 19th, 2009 by DieWolf

During the Obama / McCain town hall debate Health Insurance was a big issue. Barak Obama stated that no family should go Bankrupt based on a catastrophic illness and spend there time battling with the insurance companies while they are trying to deal with their illness.

That goal can be achieved today for over 70% of the American work force with a simple change in insurance coverage. Companies that currently offer blanket medical coverage offer the following
Policies:

Medical Insurance
Group Life Insurance
Shot Term Disability
Long Term Disability
Dental
Vision
401K

An employee that is provided with these types of benefits was considered to be fully insured and covered. Based on a Harvard Bankruptcy Study illness to either spouse will cause such a financial strain it will send the family into Bankruptcy within weeks.

The solution is to simply realign the money spent on insurance to protect the income of the employees through supplemental insurance. Using the same dollar amount the insurance package can be re-allocated to the following:

Medical Insurance
Group Life Insurance
Short Term Disability
Long Term Disability
Supplemental Income Protection
401K

Using this model of replacing the Dental and Vision insurance with Supplemental Income Protection the employee is now financially ready to face catastrophic illnesses. Employers do not spend extra money to implement these plans as they are employee contribution plans and the Employer saves on Pay roll Taxes.

The payroll deduction Companies gain can be used to defray the costs to the company of supplying medical insurance to the employees. By realigning these costs it would increase health care coverage and protect individuals from financial disaster based on Catastrophic Illness to themselves, a spouse or children.