Catastrophic illness

A catastrophic illness is a severe illness requiring prolonged hospitalization or recovery. Examples include^[1] cancer, heart attack or stroke. These illnesses usually involve high costs for patients and health insurance companies and may incapacitate the person from working, creating a financial hardship. They are the type intended to be covered by high-deductible health plans. Research indicates that the unusual economic environment of the delivery of catastrophic illness care encourages the use of innovative therapies.^[2] Medicare contains a benefit for catastrophic illness.^[3]

1. ^ MR Gillick; NA Serrell; LS Gillick (1982), "Adverse consequences of hospitalization in the elderly", Social Science & Medicine, 16 (10): 1033–1038, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(82)90175-7, PMID 6955965
2. ^ Warner, Kenneth E. (January 1977), "Treatment Decision Making in Catastrophic Illness" (PDF), Medical Care, XV (1): 19–33, doi:10.1097/00005650-197701000-00002, JSTOR 3763281, PMID 401923, S2CID 154649629
3. ^ John K. Iglehart (March 2001), Medicare's New Benefits: "Catastrophic" Health Insurance, vol. 10, Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Economics, pp. 213–228

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