Cancer insurance is a type of health care policy that covers expenses associated with cancer. This insurance is intended as a supplement to an individual’s existing South Carolina health insurance plan. Benefits are paid directly to the insured, and in turn, the person receiving these benefit payments uses them to help pay the costs of the individual’s cancer treatments, as well as other costs associated with cancer. Cancer insurance is not an alternative to medical health insurance, but is to be used in conjunction with an existing health plan to help offset the high costs associated with the treatment of cancer.
What are the Benefits of Cancer Insurance?
For the cancer patient, the expenses of the disease, both medical and otherwise, can become overwhelming. While an existing health care plan will cover some of the expenses associated with medical treatment of cancer, there are many expenses associated with the disease that are not covered by a health care plan. While a large part of these expenses are medical, the cancer patient also faces a large number of non-medical expenses as a result of cancer. Some of these non-medical expenses may include: loss of job, increased living expenses, child-care, transportation, and a number of other costs resulting from a cancer diagnosis. The benefits received from a South Carolina cancer insurance plan can be used for any expenses linked to having cancer, both medical and non-medical. Cancer insurance can provide peace of mind to the cancer patient, while providing financial assistance for the expenses incurred from this expensive and troubling illness.
South Carolina Cancer Stats
Cancer is a leading cause of illness and death in America. Currently in the United States, 25% of all deaths are a result of cancer. The South Carolina Central Cancer Registry published its first 10-year report in the spring of 2009. The report accounts for cancer trends in the state over the last 10 years, tracking the number of deaths, as well as the number of incidences of cancer in the 10-year period. According to this report, cancer death rates decreased by 18.2%, and the incidents of cancer diagnosis decreased by 3.2%. While these decreases represent great strides in the fight against cancer, the disease is still among the greatest causes of death in the United States. In South Carolina, the leading types of cancer included prostate, colorectal, bladder, breast, and lung. Also according to the report, only about half of cancer patients in the state survived longer than 5 years after diagnosis. The median survival time for most cancer patients was recorded to be about 5.5 years.
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