Benjamin Franklin famously remarked that only two things are inevitable: death and taxes. In this era of superior diagnostics, timely treatment, miracle drugs, and breathtaking medical innovation, he might have been tempted to add a third item to the list — serious long-term illness.

Almost every family experiences one: the sort of reverie-piercing, life-rending health event or diagnosis that smacks you upside the head without warning, challenging your finances, belief system, priorities, and plans — frequently when you’re on the phone with your health insurer.