Would you cancel your aflac cancer policy....

No. There will probably be more spots over the years, and the next ones you might not catch in the pre-cancer phase.

Glad you are diligent for him.

My “very healthy” and fairly young (late 30’s when he was diagnosed) brother got kidney cancer. He’s been battling it for almost a decade now. It has wiped him out financially. They now live disability check to disability check. Why would you want to stop it? Cancer is not a one and done type of thing....

No! There will be more. That's how sun damage manifests-- a spot here, a bump there...

Does this cancer policy only cover skin cancer? Because if that’s the case I can understand this line of thinking.

But there are SO MANY types of cancer, and they can strike with little to no warning. I know so many people who are battling cancer right now (real life people not including our sweet peas here). Purposefully forgoing insurance specifically designed for paying for cancer treatments seems very unwise in this age.

Heart disease is the #1 cause of death. 

Check your policy and make sure it covers what you want it to.  If you have health insurance you may be getting the same coverage.

no because secondary cancers could crop up.

I would not buy that type of insurance to begin with so if I had it I'd cancel it. I'd save the money I was spending on it into an emergency fund that will cover any type of emergency.

I would not cancel any coverage, partly concerned that these pre-cancerous spots have created a preexisting condition, making it impossible for him to get coverage when you want it in the future.

Honestly? I would cancel it and just put the money saved into a separate account, earning interest.

1) you have good medical insurance.

2) insurance companies don't stay in business if they are not making money.

3) Dave Ramsey says don't keep it either, if you listen to him.

4) I *would* have long term disability insurance.

I know most will disagree with me. That's ok. DH and I have trusted and lived by Dave's advice and he has yet to steer us wrong. 

Mine costs $9/month and pays for lost income plus a daily amount for days you or your spouse is out of work due to treatment. I kept my policy because of the level of risk we both have which is high.

Cancer is fucking expensive.

If you have cancer that requires surgery and/or radiation and/or chemotherapy, the amount anyone would save by putting aside the same amount of money spent on insurance premiums into a savings account wouldn’t begin to cover the costs treatment racks up. It is laughable that anyone thinks it is and one reason why there are so many medically-related bankruptcies in the USA.

Only you can run the numbers and decide if your insurance covers enough that a bout of serious cancer wouldn’t send your family into bankruptcy.

I won’t advise one way or the other, but encourage you to research carefully before cancelling, because cancer treatment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you want to be clear as to what your other insurance will pay for and what you will be responsible for - not overlooking co-pays, because cancer sometimes involves multiple appointments per week for a number of weeks/months.

Let me just add a real-life example of the co-pay issue.

So, the military doesn’t provide ABA (applied behavioral analysis), but military health insurance will cover it. BUT, you have to get it from a non-military provider - and there is a $30 co-pay for Tricare-approved non-military providers- Tricare being military health insurance.

My son needs ABA, and we started last month. It involves 3-4 sessions per week. We just had our first month and we had to fork over $480 in co-pays. And that will go on for the next year, at least, or until he stops beating the crap out of me...

Even co-pays can be *very* financially taxing depending on how often you need services, what your co-pays are, and what your disposable income is.

I thank heaven that I was able to get my cancer treatment at a Military Treatment Facility - no co-pays for anything I received at Walter Reed. In every book I purchased about breast cancer, there was at least one chapter dedicated to health insurance and billing. The same with breast cancer web sites - pages and pages on insurance and billing. It might be worth it to look around at cancer sites online, in addition to David Ramsey, and see what they have to say/recommend.

Aflac cancer ins is expensive. whether you keep it or not, your choice.. Unrelated to your situation...  freebird do not use this as a good reason to keep the Aflac cancer policy, or not.............

My friend has retired to Florida, although she is from NJ. Diagnosed with kidney cancer in FL. They wanted to remove her kidney. She called me on a Wed for a urologist, she flew up on Thurs and saw the kidney/cancer surgeon at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey on Friday in 2014. (She had contained, within the kidney, chemo) She still has her kidney, but she does fly up every 6 months to a year and the surgeon goes in a checks everything out. She stays with family when she comes up, otherwise Aflac would pay her hotel. They do pay for her flights for treatments, hospital etc. Her Aflac was well worth it. but situation was very unique!

You have all heard about the DH of @bergdorfblonde . Medical care in some areas of FL is not so good!

If I'm understanding this correctly it's not a health insurance where it pays for your medical costs for cancer treatment, but its what we call a critical illness insurance policy here in the UK where it pays you an income and or a lump sum if you were diagnosed with cancer or other critical conditions such as a heart attack and strokes at any time during the lifetime of the policy.

If I'm right in thinking this is what you are thinking of cancelling then I would urge you to seriously think very carefully before doing so, especially as your husband is self employed and that he has already been diagnosed and  treated for the pre-cancerous mole.

If you cancel it now, it's unlikely that they would re-insure him in the future having already been diagnosed once with pre cancerous cells in the mole. It would be classed as pre-existing and the premiums, if they did agree to insure him, would be so much higher because of the added risk.
Unless you have enough put by in savings to live on for an unknown time scale how would you cover, not just your living expenses but the extra expenses that occur when someone has to have treatment for any length of time?


ETA ......Ignore the above, I've just looked at what it covers and no it it isn't the kind of policy I was thinking it was. I would double check that you do have absolutely full medical coverage, including out of pocket expenses, on your health insurance.