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Thank you girvo. With regards to costs, thus far it is at $285,000 of which I am responsible for $3,000. That doesn't include the cost of the premiums which run us $400 / month and will soon increase as I'll be paying cobra rates instead of the employee rate. The chemo is $11,000 / month and I've been averaging a hospital stay every two weeks as my body breaks down and those average about $20,000 / week if I don't require any kind of specialized treatment. Radiation treatment was $102,000 by itself and insurance would only cover it if the doctor said I had a life expectancy of more than 6 months. There will come a time when I can't get the treatment I need because it's too expensive and not covered by insurance. I'm honestly afraid that time will be sooner rather than later as the average life expectancy for someone with my diagnosis is 9 months.

> In terms of his house and the like, I was always led to believe that life insurance was specifically for cases like his? Is life insurance a big thing in America?

I found the "Pay off our mortgage" part a bit strange. Living in Poland I don't know anyone who managed to get a mortgage without mandatory life insurance which makes the bank the first beneficiary. You die, they get the money, mortgage is paid off, family keeps the house. Pople like to bitch that it's a scam, hidden cost, extra money for the bank etc, but it's designed for situations like this (it protects the bank as well as the customer).

What are the medical costs for someone with terminal cancer in the USA?

From the limited sample size I've gathered with sadness thus far: For serious cancer, terminal or not, the system seems designed for the cost to be "everything you have" whatever that happens to be.

That is the most fucked up thing I've read for a long time. For a "health" system to be designed to suck everything out of a person of someone who's already dying is vile.

that's what it means to have a "free market" capitalist system. The demand for health is essentially infinite - the person dying of thirst in a desert will pay their entire fortune for just one cup of water.

America hasn't had anything even remotely resembling a free market Capitalist health system in over 40 years. Starting in the mid 1960s, the US Government + states, with Medicare and Medicaid, began to take over a massive portion of the healthcare system, and directly began dictating regulation and costs, while conspiring with insurance companies, big pharma and lobbyists to restrict competition and raise costs. The US healthcare system became a giant political toy, played for votes and milked for crony cash by politicians, lobbyists and corporations in tandem.

Although I'm open to a demonstration as to how I'm wrong about that. Last time I checked, health insurance typically can't even cross state borders due to hyper regulation. I don't think you can get further away from Capitalism than the US health system.

Among a few things, that's why I'm happy to live in France where with a medium wage (35,000$ / year) I'm sure that my wife will get the house ( the loan insurance will pay that) and the hospitalization would be nearly free...

Be in a welfare state is somewhat a good thing even if you pay more taxes.

For serious cancer, terminal or not, the system seems designed for the cost to be "everything you have" whatever that happens to be.

For some people this may be true. My mother died of breast cancer at 59 and it really didn't cost her anything thanks to the fact she had health insurance through my father's work. My parents were probably lower-middle-class but the fact that my dad worked the same job for 39 years and had steady health insurance throughout kept them from this fate.

I think the 100% unlimited coverage health insurance plans have slowly disappeared. The OP says he has 80% coverage, which costs him personally $10K per month so far this year.

Life insurance is something that you have to purchase for sums of that magnitude, and a lot of people are too busy buying other things to worry about spending the 10-20 bucks a month that it costs.

Usually an employer will give you an additional survivor's benefit, usually between 10K to up to a year's worth of salary.

Everyone keeps saying this. Where can you spend 10-20 bucks a month and get 100-200k coverage? I pay way more than that for like 50k coverage and I got the plane when I was 23.

https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/life/term-life

(For example)

The numbers are particular for a young woman in Illinois, but it won't be egregiously higher for young men.

When I got my car insurance with state farm I just put on the life insurance because I had nothing at the time. They said it would be cheap to add it now because I'm so young. I got this plan when I was 24 and it's $36 a month for 50k. WTF. I just checked out my employer and I can get 300k on my wife and myself for about $12 a month. The only thing I'm not sure of is if I can keep that plan after if I leave my job.

Is the plan you have a term policy? They are cheaper. No need to answer, just pointing out a possible reason.

(because other policies sort of mix in an investment product)

It's probably a whole life policy.

That's a horrible price. I'm a 30 year old male and got $500K 20 year term for $30/month.

20 year term life should be <$20 for a "normal" young person. Try Zander (broker) or Amica (insurance company that I recommend). Make sure you get term life.

Just shop around. I pay $350 for $1M term life policy. And I've got it when I was near 40.

Yeah I know you have to prchase it specifically, it's just that my family and family friends all have life insurance to specifically cover their mortgage. I was trying to work out whether that's just a quirk of my family/friend circle :)

It seems pretty common for employers to offer life cover in the UK (my wife has critical illness cover as well) - I have 4x annual salary from my employer, my wife has 3x from hers.

We also both have additional personal life cover for at least 6x annual salary.

This doesn't seem excessive cover to me - maybe because we are in our 40s with kids (and knowing people who have died and having close relatives who are terminally ill) makes you worry about these things more - I certainly didn't in my 20s.

Same: UK too and employer provides life insurance.

But when I bought a house, I was advised to get insurance cover specifically for the amount of debt remaining on the house; the policy lasts the length of the mortgage and pays out whatever is debt is outstanding.

Yeah - there are a lot of different kinds of life insurance available - paying lump sums or income, increasing/decreasing at specified rates, linked to mortgages etc, individual or joint cover etc.

A lot of US employers do same. But it is not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket.

Any case similar to OP will become problematic. When you get terminally ill you will eventually lose your job. Thanks to COBRA you can keep health insurance, but not the life, disability and long-term care insurance plans. And getting new term life policy at this stage is not really an option.

I was wonder about this. Does employer life insurance do anything to terminal illness? I pay extra to supplement my term life. But if I get too sick to work and lost my job, what good is the employer life insurance?

I would check with employer and insurance policy. But I believe legally they don't have to keep this policy active after you quit.

I just got $500K life insurance for $30 a month. That's less than we usually spend on pizza.

How does that work? Considering you would have to live for 1,389 years for them to make a profit, do they make money on... interest?

Because the odds of a healthy 30 year old dying in the next 20 years are slim, they can collect $30/mo from lots of guys like me and pay out to the very few who die in that term.

And, yes, they likely make money on that money while it's not being paid out.

Here is an actuarial table that lays out the likelihood of dying and how long you're expected to live at every age.

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html

So, say they collect $7200 from each healthy 30 year old male (when they signed up) over the 20 year term. They just need 70 people to sign up in order to pay out one $500K benefit. Many fewer than 1 in 70 people who sign up will die during the term.

I guess I was assuming it went from 30-Death instead of 30-50. Do the rates start to rise once you reach 50? Or do you have to buy a new plan, because you only buy them in 20 year increments?

Yes. A policy that covers you into old age costs WAY more. But by that point you hope your dependents are financially established.

It works because when you die it costs them way less than $500k to dispute the situation and avoid paying you anything.

Does this happen often? It doesn't appear to be a common issue.