Just wanted to let those of you reading this post that YES - these indemnity policies (also called hospital cash policies, or sickness indemnity policies) actually work.
My husband and I had never heard of such a radical concept of a company actually sending us a check for days that he spent inpatient - we thought it had to be a hoax because it was too good to be true. In this case, it is true. We started applying for them in 2000, waited out the preexisting time period, and have been collecting on most of them since 2001.
These policies are NOT health insurance, they do not cover medical bills, they simply exist to pay you (the purchaser) a set amount of $ per day for hospitalizations. Many of the ones we have also have an extra rider to pay you double for days in ICU (i.e. you get paid $100/day for a regular room, but $200/day for ICU room). We were always <u>completely honest </u>up front on the application that yes, he has CF. You simply have to pay your premiums to wait out the pre-existing condition time period (typically 1 year waiting period) and then as long as you have not been late in your premium payments, you can file a claim after a hospitalization.
For Cfs who are rarely hospitalized, I can see that they would not be financially beneficial, but for people like my husband who ALWAYS go in at least 3-4 times per year for usually 2-3 weeks at a time, the premiums pay themselves within the first couple of days of the hospital stay and then the rest is yours to keep.
By the way, you can still get them while on Medicare (just not Medicaid) and it's okay to get them while on SSDI (just not SSI).
Hope this helps some of you!
Liz