I'm sure you've seen articles touting critical illness insuranceas one of the fastest growing voluntary products. Let's discusssome drivers of its growth.

Medical plan gaps have received a great deal ofattention as deductibles have been rising due to the trend towardhigh-deductible health care plans. PPACA-related medical insuranceplan designs often leave the insured with significant out-of-pocketmedical expenses. The awareness of these gaps is often cited as aprimary driver of the need for CI: In the event of a criticalillness, the out-of-pocket expense maximum is likely to be reachedimmediately, and CI fills the gap.

Uncovered medical expenses include the extra cost ofgoing outside a health care plan's network or authorized coverage.My wife's best friend is an example. She had an aggressive form ofcancer but her primary care physician didn't authorize thetreatment plan she felt would be best. So she decided to go to theMayo Clinic for a second opinion. They agreed with her and she hada procedure outside her plan's coverage. Fortunately, she was ableto convince her insurance plan to extend coverage, but many are notso fortunate. CI can help here, and as we look forward to theincreasing focus of medical plans on narrow networks, this need islikely to grow.

Loss of family income is a fact of life when a familymember has a critical illness event. While disability incomeprotection may provide some income replacement for the person whoexperiences the event, there's no similar protection for the lostincome of other family members who take FMLA time during therecovery period. The critical illness of a spouse or child isn'tonly traumatic personally—it can be devastating financially unlessthere is insurance in place.

Expenses associated with recovery from critical illnessnot generally covered by medical insurance include family travel,home adaptations, purchase of durable medical goods, and so on. Ithink of my own situation. We have immediate family members inUtah, Indiana and Wisconsin—as well as Nebraska. We would be facedwith huge travel costs if a critical illness struck one of us.

Preserving retirement savings is one of the drivers ofneed for CI that's often overlooked. Most people who undergo acritical illness event will survive the event, but in doing so theexpenses associated with the illness often force them to depletetheir retirement savings, whether the money is in retirement planslike IRAs or 401(k)s, or in indirect sources of savings like homeequity. CI can help preserve savings assets so they are availablefor the long haul.