Ulcerative Colitis and Insurance Cover

Ulcerative colitis is considered a serious ailment. Unlike irritable bowel syndrome, it can take a lot of time money and effort to get it treated and not having a health insurance policy can make things difficult.

Ulcerative colitis is considered a serious ailment. Unlike irritable bowel syndrome, it can take a lot of time money and effort to get it treated and depending on the level of severity, treatment could end up being a costly affair. It is a condition very similar to Crohn's disease and is from a group of similar ailments collectively called Irritable Bowel Diseases (IBD). It causes ulceration of the bowels and blood in stool. It is a serious medical condition that might even require hospitalization. And given the ever-increasing cost of healthcare, ulcerative colitis will end up hurting a lot more than just your bowels! So if you have health insurance, now is a good time to use it. Less than one in thousand persons suffer from ulcerative colitis in the United States. If that sounds like a small number, we are talking a quarter million people here!

So how much insurance coverage do you need for ulcerative colitis? Well, that's hard to say, I don't want to throw a number here because it depends on several factors like severity, mode of treatment adopted, where the treatment is administered - small government clinic or up-market private hospital - and most importantly, the reaction of individuals to the treatment and costs can vary over a wide range. I can tell you nothing more informative than "a few dozen dollars to a thousand." Case-to-case differences exist and even within an individual, the symptoms of the disease are intermittent. Sometimes they are barely noticeable and sometimes they are severe. In some cases, the symptoms lessen gradually and eventually disappear on their own, but in some cases it requires medical intervention.

Treatments include chemotherapy, surgery and alternative treatments. So if the mode of treatment adopted is chemotherapy - do you benefit from you health insurance policy? Depends. Most of the health insurance policies I know do not cover the costs of drugs. I know mine doesn't. It covers only hospitalization and surgery charges but I have to buy my own drugs. But then again, it could depend on the way the terms and conditions are phrased and defined. If drugs are an inevitable part of the treatment, you might get reimbursed. I know for sure that most policies pay nothing in case of a relatively minor ailment like irritable bowel syndrome which has no more weight than a headache but crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis can sometimes even lead to surgery.