The typical family’s income slips by more than $12,000 in the year after a breadwinner suffers a critical illness such as a heart attack, stroke or cancer, according to a study by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
This reduction of income isn’t primarily due to the lack of medical coverage. It is actually attributed to the inability to work and earn an income.
Despite these side effects, MetLife found that almost half of Americans with full-time jobs did not even have $5,000 worth of accessible savings to cover a major illness diagnosis.
More than 28% did not have at least $500 in savings.
The MetLife study also showed that:
In the event of a medical emergency, two-thirds of American workers had three months or less in available savings.
Only one-fifth of women and one-third of men were “very confident” that a financial emergency could be handled with their rainy-day fund.
A little more than half of those with a full-time job were extremely or somewhat concerned about the possibility of a critical illness impacting the financial stability of their family.
The study concluded that many Americans are unprepared to deal with the short- and long-term loss of income and out-of-pocket expense that is all too often associated with critical illness.
Another aspect of the study may reveal the reason so many are unprepared: Every surveyed
patient had medical insurance, but only 7% had critical illness insurance and only 4% had
cancer coverage.
Speak with an agent today to prepare you and your family for the worst of situations.
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