Two MetLife companion studies found many families fallshort in their ability to cover the expenses that come withexperiencing a critical illness like a heart attack or cancer.

Studies show a critical illness can reduce a family's income by more than$12,000 in the first year alone, even with medical coverage, andout-of-pocket expenses average around $3,000. Yet 46 percent offull-time workers have less than $5,000 in savings available tocover these expenses; nearly 30 percent have less than $500.[See related: Men face higher critical illness risk]

"The MetLife studies found that many people are unprepared tocope with the toll of lost income as well the out-of-pocket medicalexpenses and other illness-related costs," said Clea Barth, vicepresident, Critical Illness Insurance Products, MetLife, in a pressrelease. "A critical illness can have a long-term impact - eventhree to five years after being diagnosed, 60 percent of peopleexperiencing these serious medical situations are still incurringout-of-pocket expenses."

Nearly all patients surveyed had medical coverage, but only 7percent had critical illness insurance, and 4 percent had cancerinsurance.

MetLife reports it's not surprised by the small amount ofworkers with critical illness insurance, considering only a third offull-time employees have even heard of CII. Of these, three in fiveappear to be confusing it for health insurance, and one in fiveconfuse it with either a government insurance program or disabilityinsurance.

"Receiving a lump sum benefit can make a significant differenceto families given that about one in four working Americans simplydid not know where they could turn to for financial help ifconfronted with a critical illness, and 39 percent cited the needto go into debt - whether borrowing from a bank, from their homeequity, or from friends and family," adds Barth. "These findingsunderscore the important role that CII, along with otherprotections such as disability income insurance, can play instrengthening a family's financial safety net."

The MetLife studies found that:

• 55 percent of full-time working Americans aresomewhat or extremely concerned that a critical medical conditioncould impact the financial well-being of their families.
• Only one-third of working men and one-fifth of workingwomen feel very confident that their rainy day fund couldhandle a financial emergency.
• About two-thirds of workers say they have lessthan three months of savings available for a medicalemergency.
• When the concept of CII was explained, 58percent of full-time employees said they would beinterested in buying the product through their employer even ifthey had to pay 100 percent of the premium themselves.