SCPIE Acquisition Closes

By DEBORAH CROWE

Los Angeles Business Journal Staff

Medical malpractice insurer SCPIE Holdings Inc. said Monday that its merger with Doctor Cos., a Northern California competitor, has closed.

The California Department of Insurance last week approved the $296 million acquisition of the Los Angeles-based medical malpractice insurance provider by Napa-based Doctors.

SCPIE shareholders approved a deal in March that would turn SCPIE into a wholly owned subsidiary of Doctors. Regulators were examining whether the acquisition would shrink competition and raise premiums.

Under the deal, Doctors will acquire SCPIE for $28 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $281 million. Shares of SCPIE, which closed at $27.99 on Monday, was to be delisted at the end of the trading day.

First person: An interview with Dr. David Loxterkamp

By Jay Davis
VillageSoup/Waldo County Citizen Senior Reporter

Some look ahead to a single-payer system like those in developed countries around the world. Some look back to when doctors were revered in their communities and care was measured in relationships, not dollars.

Dr. David Loxterkamp, a family physician in Belfast for more than 20 years, looks both ways and finds a “patient-centered medical home,” the modern-day embodiment of values as old as Hippocrates.

Loxterkamp is an articulate man, as befits a doctor whose account of a year in his practice was well-reviewed nearly a decade ago.

On a sunny Saturday recently, he sat among the peonies and irises and clematis outside his Salmond Street home and talked for two-and-a-half hours about what he sees ahead. Parts of that future are as bright as a blossom, but storm clouds are in the picture, too.

When he trained as a family physician 30 years ago, Loxterkamp said he spent almost half his time in hospitals, learning how his patients were treated there. He delivered babies, lots of them, and he considered his relationships with patients an important element of their care.

Today, he said, medicine is dominated by specialists, care is procedure-oriented, and the family physician is disappearing. Indeed, every year since 1998 fewer students have entered med school to become family physicians than the year before.

An evolving practice

Seaport Family Practice, which Loxterkamp started with Dr. Tim Hughes two decades ago, is in the forefront of the movement toward “patient-centered medical homes,” a new design for family doctors. It incorporates new technologies, including electronic medical records and patient-accessible medical charts, and concedes the value of external improvements, such as hospitalists, who treat Seaport patients when they enter the hospital.

Loxterkamp, 55, says he is a primary care physician, which covers internal medicine, pediatrics and family medicine and is sometimes said to include obstetrics and general surgery as well. Only 25 percent of American physicians provide primary care, he said, a reversal of the ratio in other developed countries. And they are the second lowest paid among all classes of doctors, after those in geriatrics.

The finances of family medicine are dictated by large organizations, including the federal government, insurance companies and hospitals.

Loxterkamp said he is only reimbursed for face-to-face encounters with patients, which are viewed as procedures. The considerable time spent referring his patients to specialists, filling prescriptions for medicine, and e-mailing patients, which is part of the doctor-patient communication system at Seaport, are not included.

A patient with a bum knee has several ways to deal with it, Loxterkamp said, from an operation to replace the aching joint to developing a diet and exercise routine to strengthen the surrounding tissue and muscles. The family physician would encourage the second route, but would not be reimbursed for his counsel. The surgeon who installs the new joint, on the other hand, would be paid thousands of dollars.

Family medicine, he said, is usually less expensive than the procedures carried out in hospitals, because doctors are paid based on what they do to patients, not whether they help them. Until the system uses outcomes of medical approaches as the standard for payment, and not procedures, the costs of care will continue to increase, Loxterkamp said.

Seaport Family Practice was one of 36 in the country to participate in the National Demonstration Project, a two-year study to test the validity of a nationwide analysis known as the Future of Family Medicine Report. The report called for adoption of information technology and a strong business model as necessary medicine to cure the ills of family doctors.

Practicing changes

Loxterkamp said Seaport has changed the way it operates in accordance with the report's recommendations. Among the innovations are:

• Filing prescriptions electronically with the mail-order companies most patients choose. “It is much quicker,” he said.

• Working with one nurse as a doctor's partner in the development of a joint note that is placed in the patient's electronic file. The nurse takes the patient's vital signs and the complaint that prompted the visit and enters them in the record, he explained. The nurses and doctors rotate every six months or so.

• Developing what he calls a patient portal, an electronic file that the patient can access from anywhere, reducing the time to transfer medical records and make referrals.

•Hiding nothing from patients, including the recording of information in the record of a visit that might not have been discussed with the patient. “It's absolutely helpful” to have transparent communication with patients, he said.

• Giving patients a role in their health care, which includes clear communication. His notes are not written in “doctorese,” he said, but in words the patient will understand. The communication “gives patients responsibility for their care, which most of them want,” he said.

How to find the best medical treatment

Know your way around the Internet, arm yourself with statistics and don't be afraid to speak up.
By Susan Brink, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 23, 2008
Even if you're not rich or well-connected, you can find leading-edge treatment when it matters. And it could well matter if your condition is rare or if few doctors have developed expertise in treating it. For starters, be Internet savvy -- and pushy. Here are some tips for getting what you need:

Be open to the hospital your insurance plan recommends.
Insurers want to keep costs down, and one way to do that is to minimize costly complications. So they try to contract with institutions that have the most experience and the best outcomes. Even HMOs contract with outside centers of excellence for some rare disorders when their own physicians lack unique expertise.

"This whole notion of centers of excellence used to be based on gestalt and individual recommendations," says Dr. William Roper, dean of the medical school and chief executive of the healthcare system at the University of North Carolina.

"It's becoming much more data-driven and evidence-based."

To determine the "best," arm yourself with numbers.

If the doctor, or hospital, you want has more experience than the one your insurer has chosen, show your insurer the numbers. A surgeon who has done a procedure a few hundred times will have better results than one who has done it two or three times. "There's a growing body of evidence that says that volume matters," Roper says.

The only way to find out is to ask, so don't be shy about asking physicians how many times they've done the procedure, or treated the condition.

And be specific. A cardiac surgeon who has done hundreds of heart bypasses is not necessarily an expert in valve replacements.

Get recommendations.

The less common the disorder, the fewer the institutions that will have deep experience with it. But it's just those institutions you want to find. Each time you talk to a provider, don't end the conversation without asking who else has experience with your condition or which institutions are known for treating the disease. Keep following the chain of recommendations to see if one or two names are consistently repeated.

Do your homework.

Track down statistics and studies as tailor-made to your condition as possible.

Search for articles at the National Institutes of Health's free archive of medical journals (pubmedcentral.nih.gov). You can often see the entire study for free, sometimes only the abstract, but poring over the list will give you an idea of which institutions are actively publishing articles. Be as specific as possible in your search. For example, don't type in "brain cancer." Use "malignant glioma," "brain tumor" and "left parietal lobe."

Find out who is doing research into your condition.

If a physician publishes a lot about your condition, there's a good chance he or she is already onto potentially better techniques, even if results haven't yet been published. "What is published is always years behind what is happening at major academic centers," says Dr. Henry Friedman, deputy director of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina.

Even if you don't want, or qualify for, a clinical trial, find out which institutions are researching your condition. Go to clinicaltrials.gov for a list of more than 50,000 federally and privately sponsored trials.

Make appointments.

When you find a doctor or hospital doing research into your disease, call the physician or the institution. Large academic centers all have physician referral departments set up to connect patients with the appropriate physician. Your insurance company will cover a second opinion, and going to a large center for that second opinion can be the entryway to excellence.

Hospitals reeling from unpaid claims of 'impaired' victims

An estimated 18,000 traffic fatalities involved alcohol, drugs, or both on American highways in 2006, the latest year for which such figures are available.

Thousands more were rushed to trauma centers for emergency care and extended hospital stays well into six-figure dollar amounts.

In most cases, insurance claims covering accident victims – 65 per cent – will be paid. It’s the other 35 percent that hospital administrators worry about. Those admitted to trauma and burn centers with impairing substance levels in their system maybe denied insurance coverage. Insurers can refuse to pay the medical claims of those who test positive for drugs and alcohol.

Rising healthcare costs and the growing number of defaulting insurance companies are jeopardizing the future of both public and private hospitals with unpaid millions in uncollectible bills. The Regional Medical Center of Memphis (The Med) is one among a number of hospitals across the state buckling under the costs of default insurance claims.

“Basically, many medical insurance forms include a clause which frees the insurer from liability in cases involving substance abuse,” said Vickie Trice, of the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance public information office. Some will pay the claim, but a significant number refuse, leaving hospitals to absorb the costs.”

Medical facilities are stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars in ‘uncollectible accounts each year. Several individual bills even run into the millions.

“Trauma victims in the Mid-South will automatically be brought to The Med,” said Vice-President Sandy Snell of Communications and Marketing. “Some don’t have insurance. Others are covered by insurers who refuse to pay. Since individuals most likely could not possibly pay, these accounts are sent to attorneys who specialize in overturning these kinds of denials.”

There are no claim default statistics, but doctors and hospitals in Tennessee fear an increasing number of insurers will begin using the clause.

At Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, officials estimated that about one in three victims brought to the hospital for trauma treatment annually are substance impaired.

Last year, state lawmakers adopted a resolution asking that a review of Tennessee alcohol and drug laws be submitted for possible reform. The report is due Dec. 1.

Laws mandating the payment of such claims have been enacted in the District of Columbia and 13 states: Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Washington.

North Carolina, the only state in the southeast region with such legislation, passed a law in 2001 prohibiting claim default on the basis of impairment. But not all insurance polities are affected.

Chrissy Pearson, director of public information for the North Carolina Department of Insurance, said under North Carolina law, an insurer may not refuse to pay a claim based on substance use found in the blood.

“But the policy must be comprehensive, covering hospital costs, surgery and other medical procedures,” said Pearson. “If policies cover only accidents or just pay out a dollar amount for each day in the hospital, insurers may choose not to pay at their discretion.”

According to a recent report published, The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, carefully choosing insurance companies makes a difference. The newspaper’s inquiry found:

As the state’s largest health insurer, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, claims are not denied based on intoxication. And in September, the insurer will discontinue a policy that allowed it to deny claims related to an injury occurring during the commission of “a felony, an attempted felony, riot, or insurrection.”

Aetna does not deny substance-abuse claims, but may sometimes seek restitution from the person responsible for causing the accident.

UnitedHealthcare does not have a clause written into the language of insurance contracts and will not likely include it in the future.

Dr. Julie Dunn, director of trauma at East Tennessee’s Johnson City Medical Center, told The Tennessean that Alcohol and urine-sample tests for screening were eliminated after an insurer refused to pay the claims of a man who became a quadriplegic from injuries sustained in a fall at home. He had consumed several bottles of beer.

Said Dr. Dunn, “It’s not in anybody’s best interest to deny such a claim.”


NOTE: Traffic crashes account for about 20 percent of the nation’s traumatic brain injuries. African Americans have the highest death rate from these severe head injuries, according to a report by the Brain Injury Association of America.

Born too soon: Can tiny fighters make it home?

By JAIME ARON

DALLAS (AP) — Seventeen weeks premature, our twin sons were so small, so fragile. And already they'd been through so much.

Josh had had heart surgery, Jake a life-threatening bowel operation — and that was just in their first week. They'd received blood transfusions, endured endless medical exams and procedures.

Both still had ventilation tubes down their throats, feeding tubes in their noses, IVs in their heads or arms and all sorts of monitors wired to their chests and feet.

Still, they'd cleared many hurdles since they were born — weighing 1 pound, 2 ounces each — the day before Mother's Day 2002. And now, five weeks and a day later, on Father's Day, we'd reached another milestone.

For the first time, my wife, Lori, and I were offered the chance to hold them.

Many times, we had watched enviously as other NICU parents got to do what's known as "kangaroo care," gently cradling their infants chest-to-chest. When our turn finally came, there was a catch: Only one of us could hold one of the babies. Lori deservedly got the honor.

It took three nurses to lift Jake and all his wires out of the incubator and to place him safely on Lori's chest. Scared of doing anything wrong, she cupped one hand under his feet, the other on his back, then hardly moved for more than an hour.

They say these sessions are therapeutic for the babies and, indeed, Jake's monitors showed he liked it. I think it's even more therapeutic for the parents.

As our tiny son slept, we cried tears of joy, whispering about this special moment we feared might never happen.

We even allowed ourselves another bit of imagining: The day we'd take our babies home.

___

After navigating those first frantic days and tense weeks, our concerns shifted — from whether the boys would take their next breath to how much longer they'd need the ventilator. We still called the NICU first thing each morning, but there was less fear as we dialed.

As optimistic as we were, we still had plenty to worry about.

The boys' eyes and ears had yet to be tested, and it would be months before the follow-up scan to make sure there wasn't any bleeding in their brains. Infection was a constant concern, especially when a NICU neighbor was attacked by a preemie's most dastardly devil: the lung virus known as RSV.

And there were terrifying surprises — like the time Josh was kangaroo-ing with Lori and something went wrong with his breathing tube.

Seeing trouble on the monitor, a nurse threw back the privacy screen, pulled Josh into his incubator and gave him mouth-to-mouth. Soon enough, he was stabilized and got a new breathing tube. Lori was shaken for weeks.

Through the highs and lows, the hospital staff became more than caregivers, even more than friends. "Like family" is the way most people describe it. To me, it was as if we were teammates — united by a mutual goal, each with a different role, anyone capable of being the star player.

We bonded like teammates, too, learning about each other's lives.

One nurse, Jan, loved talking about her son, Patrick, especially whenever one of our boys faced a problem he once had. You see, Patrick was a NICU baby, too — one who was abandoned, until Jan and her husband adopted him.

Another nurse, Kim, who spoke with a West Texas drawl, said she drove an hour each way to work, always listening to Don Williams' Greatest Hits. The same obsessiveness showed in her attachment to Jake and Josh, the smallest babies she'd ever cared for.

"They've been in my dreams several times," she said. "I had a bad dream about them when I was on vacation. I got up and called the NICU to make sure they were OK."

A similar bond sent Julie digging through her closet for the boys' first clothes, an outfit specially made for teeny NICU babies that she'd saved from another hospital where she'd worked. Debra copied the design, making Independence Day gear: tie-dyed red, white and blue outfits for the twins, with a matching shirt and socks for their brother, Zac.

___

Though Zac hasn't been mentioned much here, our 4-year-old's world was rattled, too.

We did our best to keep life normal for him, except for that first week, when he bounced between his cousins' homes.

We explained that his brothers were born, but were very sick. He wanted to see them, so we let him. He even brought gifts: A blue Beanie Baby for Jake, a red one for Josh, and a picture of himself to put in each incubator — or, as we told him they were, the rocket ships doctors use to help the boys grow big and strong.

Later, once Lori recovered and I returned to work, we developed a routine. She spent about four hours at the NICU during the day, then met Zac at home after school. We all had dinner together, then I'd put Zac to bed and go to the hospital.

We were allowed to bring Zac to the NICU once a week. Sometimes he wanted to come, sometimes he didn't. Whatever he picked was fine.

We also started a tradition of bedtime prayers, with Jake and Josh obviously coming first. After his next NICU visit, Zac asked if he could also pray for "all their doctors, nurses and friends."

We knew then he was going to be one heck of a big brother.

Another night, Zac gave me very specific orders before I left for the hospital.

"Tell them you love them," he instructed, "then tell them that I am at home."

___

Home. Waiting for them to arrive, waiting for our family to be united. As spring led to summer, we knew we were getting closer, step by developmental step.

On Aug. 9, exactly three months after Lori's water broke, Jake and Josh moved into the same crib, putting them side-by-side for the first time since the womb.

Several weeks later, Zac came to the hospital for a visit and a party, the annual NICU Reunion, where there'd be a bounce house, face painting and all sorts of games for several hundred "NICU graduates" and their families.

En route from our boys to the party, I saw a family gathered around a nearby incubator, having some kind of religious ceremony. I didn't think much of it.

But when Zac and I returned, a white plastic flower was on the outer NICU door — the signal a baby had just died.

The joy of the party evaporated. When I realized there was no longer a crib where that family had been praying, it hit me — that ceremony was last rites.

So while we were playing, celebrating success stories and dreaming about being back next year as graduates ourselves, that family was turning off machines.

___

The day after Labor Day was the boys' due date, yet it was their 116th day in the NICU. Jake weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces; Josh was up to 6-4.

Later that week, Jake had a follow-up operation, reconnecting his bowel. Soon after, we rejoiced when both boys were breathing without the ventilator's help. Fran, a nurse we'd grown especially close to, celebrated by hugging us like a grandma who'd seen a baby take his first steps.

"All that's left," the doctor said, "is taking all their feedings from a bottle and maintaining or gaining weight."

How hard could that be? The boys had defied so many odds that we took for granted they would master the seemingly simple task of bottle feeding.

By early October, we knew something was seriously wrong.

Both boys cried when a bottle came anywhere near them. They almost always spit up, sometimes losing the whole meal. Jake even got into the habit of arching his back to resist.

Both had severe cases of acid reflux. They needed a procedure to tie the top of their stomachs, preventing them from throwing up. They'd also get a feeding tube inserted into their bellies so they could receive nourishment while battling their oral aversion. By the time all of this was completed, it was November.

And we were done. Finally. The surgeries signaled the finish line.

On his 199th day in the NICU, Jake was unplugged from all the monitors and placed in his carrier for the ride home. We closed out a multimillion-dollar hospital tab, luckily covered by our insurance.

It was Nov. 25, a few days before Thanksgiving. We knew how much we had to be thankful for.

Josh left the NICU a week later — in the middle of Hanukkah. It was the night we lit five candles, and we loved the symbolism: The five of us. Together. For the first time. Home.

___

We soon learned that life outside the hospital wasn't the end-all we had built it up to be.

Plenty of challenges lay ahead — a procedure to repair Josh's throat, likely damaged by a breathing tube; hundreds of hours of therapy to develop muscles and conquer eating problems; ordeals with the "buttons" where the feeding tubes attached. ER trips. Even a weeklong hospital stay because of the dreaded RSV.

Still, slowly but surely, there were fewer doctors' appointments.

And look at them now.

Jake is a budding musician, and Josh is becoming quite the artist. Their personalities are totally different — Jake's the extrovert, Josh the introvert — but both love video games, sports and messing with their big brother, typical 6-year-old stuff.

Yes, they turned 6 on Mother's Day.

Jake is 3 feet, 6 inches and 34 pounds, Josh 3 feet, 5 inches and 32 pounds. Jake has darker hair and skin, Josh more curls and fuller cheeks. Both have killer smiles.

While they can't grasp their story, we look forward to eventually explaining it all, letting them read the old e-mails, the responses and the journal I kept.

Zac is 10 and starting to understand everything his brothers went through. This past school year, he wrote several stories about their scary times.

We visit the NICU every year around the twins' birthday, delivering treats.

Sure, there are some lingering problems: Josh has asthma and a soft, raspy voice; Jake's permanent front teeth will never grow in. But that's it. Big deal.

Which inevitably makes us ask, why us? Why were Jake and Josh among the 1,201 multiples born so small in 2002 who made it instead of the 1,367 who didn't? Why did both boys not only survive, but thrive?

We don't know. We do know how much this journey has changed us.

There are big-picture things like a new faith in medicine and a strong faith in faith itself. We don't go to synagogue any more often than before, but you can't tell me all those prayers, and all that love directed toward these guys, didn't make a difference.

Another tightened bond is our marriage. By some accounts, that defies the odds, too.

I've come out of this with silver hairs around my temples, and fragile emotions, leaking tears at anything that tugs the heart strings.

Which brings us back to where I began, choked up during my speech at a March of Dimes event. I was trying to give an update on the boys, but couldn't.

Lori came up to console me. She wound up taking my place, picking up where I left off:

"By now, I'm sure you realize that we are the proud parents of miracle babies."

On the Net:
http://www.jakeandjosh.net

'Full to the brim'

By Jane Clifford
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 9, 2008

The dogs sensed something was up and turned to Anna Jaramillo for answers. That only made things harder for her and daughter, Eyannah, 9, who were at the San Diego Humane Society to relinquish their beloved pets.
Jaramillo moved recently from one house in Santee to another and can't keep them.

“The bank showed up 13 days ago,” Jaramillo said, with a notice that her rental property was being sold, the result of foreclosure. “The landlord didn't bother to tell me this was happening.”

It's a scene being repeated across the county, and the country, as the economy squeezes people – and their pets.

Rising costs for fuel, groceries and health care along with the housing crunch leave four-legged family members with cheaper food, fewer physicals and, sometimes, just out in the cold – on the side of the road or in backyards and houses their owners have left or lost.

“We are up 1,700 animals more than this time last year,” said Dawn Danielson, director of the county's Department of Animal Services, which serves San Diego, six other cities and unincorporated areas. “There had been a steady decline over five years, and this is the first year we now have an increase. We attribute that to a lot of people losing their homes.”

Oklahoma chief medical examiner resigns

By Ken Raymond
Staff Writer

He has accepted a position as assistant medical examiner in Virginia, where he will run the Norfolk office, an official said.

In an e-mail to the Board of Medicolegal Investigations, Gofton, 38, said that working in Oklahoma has "been a spectacular experience” and praised his "wonderful staff.”

He did not explain in the e-mail, which is dated June 2, why he is quitting the Oklahoma position.

His last day of employment will be July 21, although his e-mail indicates he will use 115 hours of accrued vacation leading up to that date.

Kevin Rowland, chief investigator for the medical examiner's office, said Gofton will not comment on his decision to leave the state.


A previous goodbye
This isn't the first time Gofton has resigned his position.
In mid-June 2007, Gofton tendered his resignation in the midst of an apparent budget crisis that threatened to leave the medical examiner's office understaffed and in danger of losing its national accreditation.

Rowland sent a letter to funeral directors and district attorneys on June 19. It warned of dire consequences — lengthy delays, fewer autopsies, more rulings of "undetermined” deaths and fewer payouts from insurance companies — if Gofton left and if the office didn't receive more funding.

About a week later, legislators agreed to provide nearly $1 million in emergency funding. Almost $50,000 of that went to increase Gofton's salary to $235,000. He withdrew his resignation in July.

The process rubbed some lawmakers the wrong way.

"When they requested more money, they went to the funeral homes instead of the Legislature, getting them to put on pressure,” said Rep. Lucky Lamons, D-Tulsa.

Legislators later learned the medical examiner's office had about $1 million available without the emergency funding, Lamons said.


More controversy
Within months, Gofton's office was under legislative scrutiny again.
His plan to streamline operations by moving all autopsy services to Oklahoma City met with stiff resistance from Tulsa lawmakers, including Lamons. The plan was tabled indefinitely.

The move was enough, though, to increase attention on legislation to put the medical examiner's office and other agencies under the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation or the governor. That legislation failed to advance.

Gofton's office also underwent an investigative audit into allegations of impropriety involving the harvesting of organs and tissue for organ sharing networks. Those allegations proved unfounded.

Lamons requested the investigative audit. He also asked the governor to seek a performance audit of Gofton's office. That request, he said, was denied.

Tuesday, Lamons criticized Gofton's management of the medical examiner's office, saying Gofton allowed himself to be influenced too much by Rowland and ignored protests from legal and law enforcement experts about his plan to stop conducting autopsies in Tulsa.

"I wish Dr. Gofton all the good luck that can come with a new position,” Lamons said, "but we have a responsibility to the citizens of Oklahoma.”

With Critical Illness Life Insurance Your Family Will Not Suffer

Being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness scares the bejesus out of the layperson, but you need to in order to prepare for the unexpected by purchasing critical illness life insurance. Without the protection of critical illness life insurance in place, you and the rest of your family may suffer major financial devastation should you become critically ill, losing the ability to work

Critical illness life insurance pays you a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a severe medical problem in contrast with disability insurance which covers lost monthly income and anticipates the possibility of your eventual return in some capacity to the work force.
Rules and stipulations vary, but as a rule of thumb as long as you survive the illness for a pre-determined designated time period, of usually between 14 to 30 days, the policy will pay out a one-time full benefit amount.

There are three forms of critical illness life insurance: a mortgage life insurance policy with a critical illness rider; a combined policy of mortgage and critical illness life insurance; and a stand alone critical illness life insurance policy. Requesting information and critical illness quotes for various insurance providers will provide you with the opportunity to compare insurance rates and choose the policy type and coverage which best suits your individual needs.

Critical illness life insurance is for everyone and is not just limited to home owners or employed individuals. If your spouse falls sick and you have to take time away from work, critical illness coverage would eliminate the added burden of looming bills and pesky creditors.

The expense of health insurance could become astronomical, especially if coverage is denied or cancelled. Critical illness insurance is routinely confused with health insurance, people have become bankrupt trying to pay medical bills that were not covered by their health insurance provider. The majority of health insurance policies feature limited benefits, ceilings and caps on the yearly payouts and/or maximum life amount. Purchasing critical illness life protection will guarantee your ability to meet all of life's "surprise" financial obligations.

So, how much coverage will you need? Well, that all depends on the situation. But when approximating how much critical illness life insurance is necessary:

• How much are your monthly expenses?
• How much is your total monthly mortgage?
• What other insurance policies do you have?

Also take a look at how the terminally ill by each adult member of the household would affect the overall financial future of the family. Take into consideration the changes that would occur, lost wages, medical bills, out of pocket expenses (gas, parking, co-payments, prescriptions, supplies, long-term care expenses, etc.) and increased child’s/adult daycare.

Protect yourself and your family by purchasing critical illness life insurance for every adult household family member. The possibility of becoming terminally ill is very real and so is the potential devastation to your family without adequate critical illness insurance protection.

By: David G. Petten

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