Sickness insurance can have a different meaning in different countries. Many developed countries today have a universal health insurance scheme of some description that is usually operated by its government. These schemes insure the country’s population against excessive medical bills should you become sick or injured. It usually includes hospital costs as well as doctor and surgical expenses. These schemes are paid for by all citizens paying a levy. Private medical care usually exists alongside the public scheme where the public body offers a basic care available to all, especially the poorer in the community, the private schemes offer more elaborate hospital accommodation and choice of their own doctor or surgeon.

Sickness insurance in these countries is confined to private insurance companies insuring the policy holder against loss of income whilst ill. While most work contracts have a period in which the employer will continue to pay his or her employee whilst unable to attend work, these periods eventually expire and if you remain incapacitated you stand to lose your ability to earn an income. Sickness insurance, in these cases, starts paying its benefit to the insured person when the employer’s payments cease. If you are self employed your sickness insurance can start making payments sooner but it will mean an increase in your premium.

Accident and Sickness Insurance

In order to be covered in case you become too sick to work or you are injured you need to choose the best accident and sickness insurance policy for your situation. These types of insurances will pay you your benefit on a monthly basis should you become incapacitated due to an injury or illness. Few if any of these types of insurance policies pay the full amount of your salary as this is regarded as a disincentive for the person to remain off of work once they have recovered. It is therefore normal for cover to be arranged on up to 65 percent of your before tax monthly income. The cover can last for various lengths of incapacitation, some policies may expire after 12 months, others five years, but they can be purchased for your entire working life, at least to retirement age if you wish.

Mortgage Protection

The mortgage protection insurance that you take out to assure your lender that the payments on your mortgage will continue to be paid, if you lose your normal income through sickness or injury, is another form of an accident and sickness insurance policy. These policies can often give a larger benefit than a regular sickness insurance policy. It is offered to both employees and the self employed.

Conditions of Sickness Insurance

You should consider taking out accident and sickness insurance without including unemployment cover which can pay a benefit when you lose your job through no cause of your own, such as when you become redundant. By not including unemployment you can lower the premium costs. You will not normally be asked to undergo a medical examination to obtain sickness insurance, nor is there usually an additional cost involved if you are a smoker, however most insurers do include certain conditions such as:

• The date of when you first became sick or injured has to be certified by a doctor and this certification has to be after the waiting period when you become eligible for payments of your benefits.
• You must have been unable to work for the number of days required in your insurance schedule (waiting period) before payments commence.
• Your benefit payments will cease when you return to work, or when the period of time you have agreed to be covered expires.

Serious Sickness Insurance

You can also take out insurance cover to protect yourself from financial loss should you unfortunately suffer from a major injury or illness such as paraplegia, heart attack or cancer. The payouts made under these types of policies can be made as a lump sum or in any other manner that you wish, such as paying off your mortgage directly and any other debts. It can also be used to pay for a holiday to help in your recuperation. A serious sickness insurance cover is restricted to certain types of illnesses or injuries such as the following:

• Stroke.
• Severe burns.
• Paralysis.
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Heart attack.
• Coronary artery by-pass.
• Kidney failure.
• Cancer.

Serious sickness insurance can be purchased for quite large amounts of cover depending on your age at the time of taking the insurance out, and there is usually a minimum amount you can insure yourself for, most insurance companies set this amount at about $25,000. If you are over 18 years of age but no more that 44 you can expect to obtain insurance for up to $750,000. From 45 to 54 you can obtain amounts up to $375,000 but when you reach 55 and up to 59 the best you will be able to secure will be around $125,000. It is unusual for an insurance company to sell new serious sickness insurance cover to anybody after they have turned 60 years of age.