Cancer insurance is a type of supplemental insurance that pays a benefit if you, the policyholder, are diagnosed with cancer. It's not intended to replace group health insurance coverage you have through your employer or an individual health insurance policy you've purchased. But, you can purchase a cancer insurance policy by itself as a stand-alone policy without having any other type of health insurance coverage.

You may think you can just rely on your standard health insurance to cover cancer. However, your health insurance often doesn't cover extraneous cancer expenses, such as any days you might miss work or extra expenses. Your supplemental cancer insurance policy may step in and cover those costs. Supplemental health insurance for cancer can help with certain out-of-pocket costs of cancer

Lump-sum cancer insurance is a form of supplemental insurance that pays a one-time cash benefit upon diagnosis of cancer. The benefit you receive — the lump sum — is designed to help you cover out-of-pocket medical expenses not covered by your health insurance.

One of the advantages of cancer insurance is that you can find coverage that pays a lump sum benefit upon a cancer diagnosis that meets policy criteria. With this type of policy, you can use the benefit for any purpose, including treatment expenses or lost income. Policies offered by Breeze start at $10,000 in coverage and can go as high as $100,000 in coverage.

Unfortunately, there are many situations in which health insurance simply isn't enough. With exorbitant medical bills stacking up, even the best health insurance plans may not cover what you expect them to (let alone those with gaps in coverage). That's why it's important to understand the types of supplemental insurance that are available to fill the gaps. For serious illnesses such as cancer, there are two similar, but different, types of coverage to know.

Even with health insurance, you may be on the hook for thousands of dollars in medical bills. That’s because health insurance plans rarely cover 100 percent of medical bills. You will likely have a deductible and coinsurance to pay. In most cases, you’ll have to cover 20 percent of the overall cost of cancer treatment. That means if you run up a bill of $150,000, your health insurance policy will pay $120,000 of the cost. You will be responsible for the remaining $30,000.