CNO Financial Unit Comes Up With New Health Insurance Plan

The Bankers Life segment of CNO Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:CNO) recently launched a hospital indemnity insurance plan. This new offering is an addition to its portfolio of supplemental health insurance products. This product is currently available through Bankers Life insurance agents in 15 states and covers individuals within the age range of 18 to 85.

The new product extends cash benefits to patients for hospitalization in case of both accidental injury and sickness. This helps to cover all those expenses that are generally not covered under other medical insurance plans. It also offers one of the highest per-day benefit options for both the Daily Hospital Confinement Benefit and the Intensive Care Unit Confinement Benefit. Moreover, this new health plan can be easily combined with any major individual or employer-sponsored health plan and ensures fixed dollar cash benefits directly to the policyholder.

This new health insurance offering would facilitate approximately 35 million people admitted to the U.S. hospitals each year, who desire to protect their savings against high healthcare cost. Given that an average hospital stay cost is more than $10,000, the substantial cash benefit provided by the offering would now protect the medically insured individuals from higher deductibles and copayments during their stay in hospitals. Bankers Life believes that this insurance plan will help policyholders concentrate more on health and less on medical expenses.

This new product is mainly characterized by three benefits that distinguish it from other health plans. The plan guarantees renewals for life if the required premiums are timely paid. The cash benefits will be paid directly to the insured member and not to any hospital or doctor. Most importantly, there will be no restrictions on how insured members chose to use the cash benefit.

The Bankers Life unit strives to help policyholders and their families strengthen their financial security and prepare for retirement. Since its inception, this particular segment has served the retirement market through a broad portfolio of affordable and good quality health and life insurance products and annuities.

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

CNO Financial presently carries Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Investors interested in other multiline insurance stocks can also look at James River Group Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:JRVR) , ageas SA/NV (OTC:AGESY) and AXA SA (OTC:AXAHY) . All of these stocks hold the same Zacks Rank as CNO Financial. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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