Are you thinking about getting an insurance policy?
If not, you should think about it as it can help you cover for your possible loss in big-ticket purchases like owning a home, driving a car, or running a small business.
Aside from that, you should also have protection in place in case it doesn’t cover all your expenses during an emergency situation.
In this article, I will review Aflac, one of the top insurance supplement companies in the United States and Japan.
Before getting into it, you can watch this video to learn how to choose your health insurance policy:
History of Aflac
The American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus was founded by John Amos with his two brothers Paul and Bill in Columbus, Georgia on November 17, 1955.
One year later, they were able to amass 6,400 and $388,000 in assets. They expanded into selling their services in 37 states by 1970 and in October 1974, they started selling insurance in Japan.
In 1989, they adopted the acronym Aflac while increasing its total assets to over $1 billion seven years prior.
In 2000, they introduced the Aflac Duck in its first commercial known as the Park Bench and since then, the fowl was used to advertise their services. Three years later, they became the number one company in Japan.
Since then, they have made significant contributions to various non-profit organizations from The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Relevant: Also read the importance of supplemental life insurance and why you should get it
Types of Insurance
In this section, I will break down the types of policies you can avail of from their agents. Most of their policies involve either health, accident, or life insurance.
1. Aflac’s Accident Insurance
This policy can help individuals going through some kind of medical expense. This can cover emergency treatment, treatment-related transportation, and lodging.
Aside from that, they can also opt for an HSA-Compatible policy where it can supplement most high deductible health plans.
As an example, if a person were to sign up for this plan and they broke their foot after servicing a roof as a repairman, the company can pay them $2,734 after their own insurance pays 60% of their total bill amounting to $7,274.
2. Aflac’s Life Insurance
For this plan for Aflac, they provide it with the following terms:
- No medical questions: This means that it will be guaranteed for those who opt for this premium. It will be provided sans underwriting questions for the policyholder.
- Portable option: This feature is available for those who claim this policy that was made by their employer. This means that if they resign or retire from their position, they can take this plan with them.
- Juvenile life: This part of the plan ensures that even if the policyholder was caught up with law enforcement, their children can be insured as an adult and help them become financially stable.
They added these in their plan as they learned that 70% of all households said that their families won’t be able to cover their own living expenses if the primary wage earner died.
As an example, let’s say the father of a household opts for this plan for $50,000 and adds in their Accidental-Death Benefit Rider. If he dies in a car accident while wearing a seatbelt, Aflac will give his family $112,500.
3. Aflac’s Health Insurance
For this type of insurance, there are many kinds of products they offer that are specific to a certain group of people who need it. There are six kinds: Cancer, Critical Illness, Hospital, Short-term Disability, Vision, and Dental.
a. Aflac’s Cancer Insurance
As there are 1.7 million new cases of cancer that were diagnosed in the United States in 2018, Aflac decided to create a plan that would help families pay for their members’ treatment. This can also be availed with HSA-Compatible options as well.
As an example, a person diagnosed with lung cancer would have to pay, on average, $166,451. They would still have to cover $66,580 of that as it will not be covered by most medical policies. When you get Aflac, they can pay you $14,436 of that.
b. Aflac’s Critical Illness Insurance
For this policy, let’s say you suddenly developed the symptoms of a heart attack: chest pain, nausea, and cold sweats. You rush to the ER with an ambulance and they take you in knowing your condition.
While you are healing, Aflac’s Lump Sum Critical Illness policy can help you get $15,029 extra to pay even after your other medical insurance plan pays 60% of $87,425 for your total expenses. This includes your expenses after you are discharged from your hospital such as maintenance medicine.
This policy can also come with HSA-Compatible options with a pre-tax savings account. With this, one can ensure that you can handle your out-of-pocket costs after your own health insurance covers most of your medical fees.
c. Aflac’s Hospital Insurance
This insurance policy is provided by Aflac as they learned that 26% of adults in the United States are unable to pay their medical bills in 2019. It will assist families who avail of this product to get themselves back on track financially.
It is even offered to those who opted for the Accident, Cancer, and Critical Illness policies as well. However, do take note that they will only offer this through deducting your payroll from your respective employer.
Take note that you can ask any Aflac partner about opting for an HSA-Compatible plan with a pre-tax savings account. Doing this will help you supplement your high-deductible health plan.
d. Aflac’s Short-term Disability Insurance
Unlike other insurance companies, they learned that over 37 million Americans are classified as disabled. Knowing that half of that number are between 18 to 64 years old, they designed their plan in this manner:
- No medical questions: It may not be available for all states, however, this condition means that this policy will be made available without the threat of underwriting questions.
- Guaranteed renewable: This plan is renewable until the policyholder reaches 75 years of age.
- Aflac Value Rider: This feature reassures all policyholders that they will be paid $1,000 every 5 consecutive years if they don’t cancel their policy and for taking care of the rider.
As an example, if someone was injured with Aflac insurance and this caused them to be completely disabled and has to lay off work for 6 weeks, the company will pay him $2,800.
e. Aflac’s Vision Insurance
Unlike other health insurance companies, Aflac has its own separate policy for those with vision problems. It features the following:
- Annual eye examination benefit (may not be available in all states)
- Covered eye surgeries
- Specific eye diseases/disorders
- Permanent visual impairment
As an example, an Aflac policyholder will gain $220 once they have a valid diagnosis from their optometrist that they need a new pair to help them see objects at a distance.
They added this service in their company as they learn how by this year, there will be 5.5 million people who will become blind or have low vision.
f. Aflac’s Dental Insurance
After learning how a person can have a 67% higher chance of getting heart disease if they don’t have dental coverage, this company offered this policy for individuals and businesses.
They cited the following as an example: one of your employees goes to their dentist for their bi-annual, exam, cleaning, and X-ray and they had a large cavity replaced with a crown.
Depending on the coverage, they offer between $285 to $450.
Aflac’s Prices and Premiums
As with some other insurance companies, the prices an individual or business has to pay for their policy depends on what the company has to cover for them. Aside from that, you can learn how much you can pay for a plan with Aflac by visiting their Cost Calculator too.
On their website, they specify that their rates are as low as $5 dollars, which are dependent on the rates of the location of where you asked to get an Aflac plan. Aside from that, all the amounts I have listed in the previous section are based on how much they were able to give their past clients in certain states.
This may seem to be a tempting offer, however Expert Insurance Reviews points out in their review that the overall cost of maintaining a policy from this country varies greatly based on the policyholder’s age, lifestyle, and health status.
How to Claim your Aflac Policy
If you avail of their policy and you do need to claim your benefits, you would have to visit their website here and log-in to their SmartClaim service. You can also send the requirements needed through fax or snail mail.
They also have a feature called One Day Pay. This is available for those who have submitted through SmartClaim within a certain timeframe within the Monday through Friday.
Under One Day Pay, customers can opt to receive their benefits through a direct deposit to their bank account. However, this can only be done if they have signed up for it in the first place in order to avoid unnecessary delays.
Customers who have an Aflac policy can also opt to have their benefits mailed through a check. This may take more than a day, however, it will be sent there successfully after following the necessary requirements to claim.
Consumer Experience with Aflac
There are mixed reviews among people who have used Aflac as their supplementary provider.
The Better Business Bureau has rated them an A+ for their services and has been accredited by them since 1957. However, they were ranked one out of five stars according to 104 customer reviews, most of them were complaints about filing and receiving their claims.
According to reviews from the US Insurance Agents, this company has been rated 2.54 out of 5 stars in total based on overall service. One of its most recent reviewers were unsatisfied in the company as they were unable to get their claim after paying for 12 years while another was able to within 2 days after filing the proper documents.
At Consumer Affairs, two of their most recent reviewers were unable to get their claims processed right away. The first one had to suffer emotionally after they had to repeat the painful experience of explaining their situation while the second complained how they were repeatedly delaying the release by asking for more documents.
At Pissed Consumer, it has been rated 2 out of 5 stars out of its 177 reviews. There was one who rated it full five stars and they said that they were able to get the money out of the 8 claims they did over three years.
Aflac in a Nutshell
Aflac is an American-based insurance company that aims to help its insurers reduce their out-of-pocket expenses due to various reasons, especially for medical-related emergencies. They feature a One Day Pay policy and an online service to file and monitor their claims.
However, do take note that applying for any of their packages involves great research. This includes whether their policy can take on your medical needs based on you and your family’s medical history.
Did this review help you? Do read some of my other guides and reviews to stay on top of your finances:
- How to get your auto insured?
- Everything you need to know about disability insurance
- The benefits if Umbrella Policies andHow They Can Protect You
Do you have any experiences with Aflac? Share it in the comments below.
