FREE HEALTH INSURANCE QUOTES Start here...

Select Insurance Type:

Individual Health Family Health Group Health Small Business Health Short Term Health Medicare Supplemental Travel Insurance

Zip code:

The recent news that heart disease will kill 400,000 Americans this year has shocked the nation - and the news only gets worse when you take into account how much it will cost those who suffer from the disease in terms of health insurance coverage.

Of those 400,000 who will lose their lives, heart disease studies show that half of them could be prevented with healthier lifestyle decisions like eating healthier foods and not smoking.

But for all of them, the impact on their health insurance coverage is likely to be high.

Right now heart disease costs $475 billion a year in direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include the cost of physicians, hospitals and treatments. Indirect costs include the loss of productivity associated with illness.

Of course, the true cost in human terms of suffering and lost lives is incalculable.

Individuals who suffer from pre-existing heart disease likely find it near impossible right now to get affordable health insurance coverage - a sad fact when you consider that these are the people who need medical care the most.

And for those who do have coverage, the costs could be financially disastrous. There are millions of under-insured Americans out there who are one illness away from bankruptcy, and heart disease is the most common life-threatening illness to strike in the United States.

Those healthy lifestyle decisions are the best way to go to minimize the impact of heart disease on your body, your life, and your wallet.

But for those who are already suffering, we can only hope that soon it will be illegal to exclude them from health coverage due to a condition that endangers their life.