Critical Illness Insurance Cost Calculator Created

To help consumers understand the affordability of cancer insurance and critical illness insurance, an online calculator has been introduced by the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance.

"Cost is always a critical factor when consumers are considering a purchase and that's especially true with insurance products today," states Jesse Slome, director of the critical illness insurance organization.   "The Association's new cost calculator will appear at the very top of almost every page on our new website and provide instant costs for $10,000 of cancer insurance."

The critical illness insurance cost calculator merely requires the consumer enter their sex, age and whether they are a smoker or non-smoker.  "There is no personal information needed to immediately see the cost," Slome explains.  "The cost appears immediately and we don't ask or want to gather any personal information.  We merely are striving to show consumers how affordable this important coverage can be."

Slome noted that the decision to show the cost for $10,000 of cancer insurance was made to be most beneficial to the largest number of young adults.  "For millions of Americans between the ages of 35 and 55, cancer is the critical illness they are most likely to have prior to reaching age 65 to 70," Slome shares.   "The average critical illness insurance policy purchased today is around $15,000 in benefits, so the modest policy seemed to make the most sense.  Obviously, if someone wants more coverage, they can easily estimate what their potential cost might be."

The critical illness insurance cost calculator is designed to demonstrate the affordability of cancer insurance and encourage consumers to seek actual pricing for coverage options.   "When consumers hear they can purchase cancer insurance protection for the cost of one or two cups of coffee a month, they'll be interested enough to take the next steps to learn more,:" Slome predicts.

The calculator revealed that a male, age 45 who does not use tobacco could pay as little as $48 a year for $10,000 of cancer insurance.  A female, age 45 who uses tobacco would pay $108 yearly for the same level of insurance.  "I chose to show smoker and non-smoker rates because it shows the numbers most fairly," Slome adds.  "When rates are the same for both, the non-smokers are more or less subsidizing some of the added risk of insuring smokers."

To learn more and access the critical illness insurance cost calculator, visit the Association's website at www.criticalillnessinsuranceinfo.org.

Jesse Slome is founder and director of the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance, headquartered in Westlake Village, California.  Slome also heads up the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance as well as the American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance.

Critical Illness Insurance Association Relaunches Website

The American Association for Critical Illness Insurance has relaunched the organization's website designed to create heightened awareness of and interest in cancer insurance as well as critical illness insurance.

"We intend for the new website to be the nation's primary and trusted resource for information," shares Jesse Slome, director of the organization first founded the critical illness insurance organization in 2009.   "Millions of Americans between the ages of 35 and 55 could greatly benefit by understanding how these two highly affordable forms of protection can provide enormous benefit in the event of a cancer diagnosis, a heart attack or stroke."

The new Association website will contain both relevant information on critical illness insurance protection as well as the three primary health conditions, cancer, heart attacks and strokes.

"Every single day, thousands of Americans hear the dreaded words, you have cancer," Slome explained.  "Every 40 seconds someone in the United States has a heart attack and another person has a stroke.  Most of these individuals today will survive but they and their family will face enormous financial consequences and many will go bankrupt, even when they have health insurance coverage."

Slome, who founded the Association at the request of several leading industry executives, noted the website relaunch was part of a planned ongoing awareness campaign.  "Our mission is twofold, first to educate consumers about this important topic," Slome noted.  "And, second, to support insurance professionals who market critical illness solutions."

The new website will have special sections focused on critical illness insurance planning, facts related to cancer, heart attacks and stroke as well as the beginnings of a center where insurance agents will be able to access information and tools.  "At the present time, there is no membership program for agents," Slome shared.  "We will see what level of interest develops over the next few months."

Most critical illness insurance policies are sold via the worksite with several major insurers comprising the largest industry players.  "We see two major trends, a number of new insurance companies that are launching new critical illness insurance products," Slome added.  "The second is an increase in the number of insurers as well as distributors who are promoting and encouraging the sale of critical illness insurance policies."

To learn more, visit the Association's website at https://www.criticalillnessinsuranceinfo.org.

Jesse Slome is founder and director of the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance, headquartered in Westlake Village, California.  Slome also heads up the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance as well as the American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance.

Health News: Heart Disease And Stroke Costs Will Triple

The cost of treating heart disease and stroke in the United States is expected to triple in the next 20 years, to $818 billion.

According to the American Heart Association this $545 billion increase in costs for treating heart disease and stroke is largely due to the aging of the population.

"The burden of heart disease and stroke on the U.S. health care system and American families will be substantial," said Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance.

The projected increase in costs will be based on the current rate of heart disease adjusted for changes in the overall age of Americans and the anticipated racial mix of patients.

Experts noted that these estimates do not take into account the additional costs for those who have more than one condition, or new treatments that might come along, To curb this rise in costs, the panel said that effective prevention strategies are needed if we are to limit the growing burden of cardiovascular disease.

American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown said in a news release that "unhealthy behaviors and unhealthy environments have contributed to a tidal wave of risk factors among many Americans. Early intervention and evidence-based public policies are absolute musts to significantly reduce alarming rates of obesity, hypertension, tobacco use and cholesterol levels."

Right now, 36.9 percent of Americans have some type of heart disease, including high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and other conditions. By 2030, that number will rise to 40.5 percent of the population, or about 116 million people, according to the report.

The biggest increases are thought to be in stroke, up 24.9 percent, and heart failure, up 25 percent.
Between 2010 and 2030, the cost of caring for patients with heart disease will go from $273 billion to $818 billion, the panel predicted.

In addition, heart disease will cost billions more in lost productivity, increasing from about $172 billion in 2010 to $276 billion in 2030. These losses include days missed from work or home tasks because of illness, plus lost earnings due to premature death.

There are also a number of low-cost, high-value cardiovascular protective therapies that are available but are underutilized in routine clinical care that could also help to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.

These include keeping blood pressure and cholesterol under control, not smoking and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, which means eating a healthy diet, getting exercise and keeping your weight down. These strategies have been proven to substantially reduce the risk of heart disease.

For more information on affordable critical illness insurance protection which can provide a tax-free lump sum cash payment upon diagnosis of a heart attack or stroke, viasit the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance's website http://www.crititcalillnessinsuranceinfo.org

Critical Illness Insurance News: Study Ties Diet To Longer Life

According to medical researchers, today's leading causes of death have shifted from infectious diseases to chronic diseases. These include cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Both of these illnesses may be affected by diet a study published in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reveals.

Researchers examined data regarding the associations of dietary patterns with mortality through analysis of the eating patterns of over 2500 adults between the ages of 70 and 79 over a ten-year period. They found that diets favoring certain foods were associated with reduced mortality.

By 2030, an estimated 973 million adults will be aged 65 or older worldwide according to the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance which tracks data related to critical illnesses. This study sought to determine the dietary patterns of a large and diverse group of older adults, and to explore connections between these dietary patterns with survival over a 10-year period.

Researchers were able to group the participants into six different clusters according to predominant food choices including healthy foods, high-fat dairy products, meat, fried foods, and alcohol and sweets and desserts.
The "Healthy foods" cluster was characterized by relatively higher intake of low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish, and vegetables, and lower consumption of meat, fried foods, sweets, high-calorie drinks, and added fat. The "High fat dairy products" cluster had higher intake of foods such as ice cream, cheese, and 2% and whole milk and yogurt, and lower intake of poultry, low-fat dairy products, rice, and pasta.

The study was unique in that it evaluated participants' quality of life and nutritional status, through detailed biochemical measures, according to their dietary patterns.

After controlling for gender, age, race, clinical site, education, physical activity, smoking, and total calorie intake, the "High-fat dairy products" cluster had a 40% higher risk of mortality than the "Healthy foods" cluster. The "Sweets and desserts" cluster had a 37% higher risk. No significant differences in risk of mortality were seen between the "Healthy foods" cluster and the "Breakfast cereal" or "Refined grains" clusters.

Drinking Coffee Reduces Risk of Advanced Prostate Cancer

A new study reveals a strong inverse association between coffee consumption and the risk of lethal and advanced prostate cancers.

Data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference revealed that coffee has effects on insulin and glucose metabolism as well as sex hormone levels, all of which play a role in prostate cancer.

Medical researchers report that that men who drank the most coffee had a 60 percent lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer than men who did not drink any coffee. This is the first study of its kind to look at both overall risk of prostate cancer and risk of localized, advanced and lethal disease.

Some 745,000 men are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States according to the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance that tracks critical illness data for cancers, heart attack and stroke. Approximately 300,000 men die each year of cancer.

The researchers are unsure which components of the beverage are most important, as coffee contains many biologically active compounds like antioxidants and minerals. They study examined both regular and decaffeinated coffee intake of nearly 50,000 men every four years from 1986 to 2006.

Nearly 5,000 men developed prostate cancer over that time. The researchers examined the association between coffee consumption and levels of circulating hormones in blood samples collected from a subset of men in the cohort. The results do suggest there is no reason to stop drinking coffee out of any concern about prostate cancer, the report adds.

For free price quote for critical illness insurance, go to: American Association for Critical Illness Insurance Consumer information Center.

Drug Duo May Cut Risk Of Heart Attack and Stroke

A combination of cholesterol and blood pressure medicine can cut the incidence of attacks by up to 60 percent according to a new study.

According to Kaiser Permanente researchers, an inexpensive combination of one drug used to lower cholesterol and another medication used to lower blood pressure can reduce the incidence of heart attacks and strokes by as much as 60 percent.

"An American suffers a heart attack every 34 seconds," explains Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance, a national trade organization. "Every 40 seconds, someone has a stroke, making these two of the most common critical illnesses afflicting individuals."

Giving the drugs to nearly 70,000 people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes prevented an estimated 1,271 heart attacks and strokes in one year, Dr. James Dudl of Kaiser Permanente's Care Management Institute and his colleagues reported in the American Journal of Managed Care.

According to reports, the inspiration for the study resulted from the Archimedes Model, a sophisticated computer simulation of the human body that predicted that lowering blood pressure and cholesterol simultaneously in those at the highest risk for cardiovascular problems. The Model predicted that the combination could reduce the incidence by 71 percent. The report noted that no study had been performed to test the prediction.

The Kaiser team chose two generic drugs, lovastatin for cholesterol and lisinopril for blood pressure, and offered them to 170,000 members of their managed-care programs in Northern and Southern California who suffered from heart disease or diabetes.

Some of the patients were already taking one of the drugs, but none of those selected was taking both. About 75 percent were also taking daily aspirin, but the researchers did not include aspirin in the protocol because they had no way to monitor usage.

They began the program in 2004 with nearly 70,000 patients. The team monitored compliance for two years by checking whether and how often patients refilled their prescriptions, then monitored health effects in the third year through the patients' health records.

Some 47,268 patients had what the team termed "low exposure" to the drugs, taking them less than half the time. Their risk of hospitalization for heart attack or stroke was lowered by 15 events per 1,000 person-years, and an estimated 726 events were prevented.