Catastrophic Illness (Noun)
Meaning
Severe illness requiring prolonged hospitalization or recovery; usually involves high costs for hospitals and doctors and medicines.
Classification
Nouns denoting natural processes.
Examples
- A catastrophic illness such as cancer can wipe out a family's savings in a matter of months.
- Many workers are concerned that a job loss could deprive them of the health insurance they need to pay for a catastrophic illness.
- In its first year, the state's catastrophic illness insurance program enrolled only about one-quarter of the number of people it had anticipated.
- The high cost of treating catastrophic illness is one reason health experts recommend that patients save as much as they can for medical expenses, even if they have health insurance.
- Researchers have found that hospital bills for catastrophic illness are more than 20 times higher than bills for non-catastrophic care.