APWU, AFLAC Offer Benefit to Help Protect
Members' Families Against Medical Catastrophe

APWU Web News Article #3-04, Aug. 16, 2004

To help union members protect their future against catastrophic events, APWU is pleased to offer cancer and critical-illness insurance coverage. These comprehensive, affordable benefits, made available through AFLAC, are being offered exclusively to APWU members and their qualifying family members.

These benefits are designed to provide a financial safety net to members should they or a covered family member suffer a serious illness. Both medical-catastrophe programs will pay cash benefits directly to the enrollees, regardless of any other insurance they may have.

Every member should consider the following when trying to determine whether these plans could benefit them:

• The American Cancer Society estimates that one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer during their lives.
• The Centers for Disease Control reports that chronic diseases - such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes are the leading causes of illness, disability and death, and are the most costly of all health problems.
• Families affected by a diagnosis of cancer or another serious medical condition often are devastated by lost wages, uncovered medical expenses, and related costs at a time when financial hardship should be the least of their worries.

Information on the AFLAC plans will be made available to all APWU local and state affiliates, and local presidents will be given an opportunity to schedule an explanation-of-benefits meeting for their membership. Contact information will be provided for each area, and additional AFLAC program and enrollment details will be accessible through the APWU Web site, www.apwu.org.

The APWU Critical Illness Benefit Plan and the Cancer Benefit Plan each offer multiple levels of coverage, with premiums for the individual, one-parent family, and two-parent family. The waiting period for coverage to begin has been waived. The APWU encourages every member to take advantage of the benefits these plans have to offer.

Weekly Rates

Individual: $4.32 One-parent family: $5.00 Two-parent family: $7.04

Critical Illness Benefit Program

(Heart attack, coma, end-stage renal failure, coronary artery bypass surgery, stroke, paralysis, major organ transplant, major third-degree burns)

Premium based on age at time of enrollment. As long as your policy remains in effect, your premium will not increase with age, or terminate after age 70.

Weekly Rates

For more detailed benefit information, contact Mike Walker, AFLAC's APWU enrollment coordinator at 877-AFLAC-66.

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