Traditional group health insurance most frequently requires an employer contribution. Voluntary health insurance plans are primarily employee paid, and act to supplement the traditional group policy.
Many supplemental health insurance programs are sold as voluntary employee benefits. The most common plans are short and long term disability, critical illness, personal accident, hospital indemnity, and life insurance.
Employer sponsored dental insurance is less common today, and may now be classified as voluntary.
Technically there aren't voluntary health insurance plans but there are voluntary insurance plans that are designed to supplement your existing health insurance plan. Voluntary benefit plans are one of the few growth areas in the health insurance market space and we are seeing new products being introduced and new insurance companies entering this arena on a regular basis these days.
Generally, when people are talking about supplementary health plans they are referring to insurance policies that address specific issues such as;
1) Accident insurance - makes a payment to the policyholder when the experience a covered accident like falling and breaking your arm.
2) Hospital Indemnity - these policies usually pay a fixed dollar amount per day or per admission for a hospitalization. These policies may also provide fixed dollar benefits for a certain number of doctor's office visits, urgent care/minor medial or emergency room visits.
3) Critical Illness - these policies pay a fixed amount upon the diagnosis of certain specified illnesses such as heart attacks & strokes, organ transplants, cancer, kidney failure. The illnesses covered and the benefit amount will vary from one supplementary insurance carrier to another and from policy to policy.
4) Cancer - these policies specifically address the diagnosis and treatment of various types of cancer.
5) GAP Plans - plans designed to cover the financial exposure of having a high deductible health insurance plan.
There are other variations on the theme and, as stated earlier, this is an area where new products are constantly being introduced. While this trend has been going on for a while, it has certainly been accelerated with passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the need to address the movement towards higher deductible plans that shift more cost onto the insured person.
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Many supplemental health insurance programs are sold as voluntary employee benefits. The most common plans are short and long term disability, critical illness, personal accident, hospital indemnity, and life insurance.
Employer sponsored dental insurance is less common today, and may now be classified as voluntary.
Generally, when people are talking about supplementary health plans they are referring to insurance policies that address specific issues such as;
1) Accident insurance - makes a payment to the policyholder when the experience a covered accident like falling and breaking your arm.
2) Hospital Indemnity - these policies usually pay a fixed dollar amount per day or per admission for a hospitalization. These policies may also provide fixed dollar benefits for a certain number of doctor's office visits, urgent care/minor medial or emergency room visits.
3) Critical Illness - these policies pay a fixed amount upon the diagnosis of certain specified illnesses such as heart attacks & strokes, organ transplants, cancer, kidney failure. The illnesses covered and the benefit amount will vary from one supplementary insurance carrier to another and from policy to policy.
4) Cancer - these policies specifically address the diagnosis and treatment of various types of cancer.
5) GAP Plans - plans designed to cover the financial exposure of having a high deductible health insurance plan.
There are other variations on the theme and, as stated earlier, this is an area where new products are constantly being introduced. While this trend has been going on for a while, it has certainly been accelerated with passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the need to address the movement towards higher deductible plans that shift more cost onto the insured person.