The contribution of voluntary health insurance: I. Health insurance fundamentals

Abstract

How to meet the costs of hospital and medical care, as well as family living expenses, is a serious problem confronting many persons with chronic disease. Voluntary health insurance is contributing a partial, but increasingly significant, answer to this question for an increasing proportion of the chronically ill. This article, presenting some basic information about voluntary health insurance, is the first in a series of three articles on the contribution of such insurance toward meeting the financial needs of the long-term patient. The second article in the series will focus on the contribution of the older or customary types of voluntary health insurance, while the third will center on the broad new type of protection, major medical expense insurance, and its potentialities of aiding the chronically ill. The remaining articles will appear consecutively in the next two issues of the Journal.