'Critical Illness' Insurance Grows As Out-Of-Pocket Health Costs Jump

A relatively obscure category of health insurance — “critical illness” insurance — is catching on because, increasingly, conventional health plans have consumers paying a lot of out-of-pocket costs. Mark Zdechlik of Minnesota Public Radio explains the pros and cons of critical care insurance in this story that aired on NPR’s Morning Edition.

This story is part of a partnership that includes MPR News, NPR and Kaiser Health News.

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<h1>‘Critical Illness’ Insurance Grows As Out-Of-Pocket Health Costs Jump</h1>
<div>	<span class="byline">Mark Zdechlik, Minnesota Public Radio</span>
		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2016-02-02T07:54:07-05:00">
			February 2, 2016		</time>
		</div>
<p>A relatively obscure category of health insurance — “critical illness” insurance — is catching on because, increasingly, conventional health plans have consumers paying a lot of out-of-pocket costs. Mark Zdechlik of Minnesota Public Radio explains the pros and cons of critical care insurance in this story that aired on NPR’s Morning Edition.</p><p><em>This story is part of a partnership that includes <a href="http://www.mprnews.org/">MPR News</a>, <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/news/">NPR</a> and Kaiser Health News.</em></p><ul><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/critical-illness-insurance-grows-as-out-of-pocket-health-costs-jump/?share=x">				Click to share on X (Opens in new window)				X			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/critical-illness-insurance-grows-as-out-of-pocket-health-costs-jump/?share=facebook">				Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)				Facebook			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/critical-illness-insurance-grows-as-out-of-pocket-health-costs-jump/?share=linkedin">				Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)				LinkedIn			</a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20%27Critical%20Illness%27%20Insurance%20Grows%20As%20Out-Of-Pocket%20Health%20Costs%20Jump&body=https%3A%2F%2Fkffhealthnews.org%2FXQJpN&share=email">				Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)				Email			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/critical-illness-insurance-grows-as-out-of-pocket-health-costs-jump/#print?share=print">				Click to print (Opens in new window)				Print			</a></li><li>				<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/critical-illness-insurance-grows-as-out-of-pocket-health-costs-jump/view/republish/">					Republish This Story				</a>			</li></ul><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em><p><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.</p><p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/critical-illness-insurance-grows-as-out-of-pocket-health-costs-jump/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://kffhealthnews.org">KFF Health News</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://kffhealthnews.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=596452&amp;ga4=G-J74WWTKFM0" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p>

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