Insurance designed to offset the heavy medical expenses resulting from catastrophic or prolonged illness or injuries. Generally, such policies do not provide first dollar coverage, but do provide benefit payments of 75 to 80 percent of all types of medical expenses above a certain base amount paid by the insured. Most major medical policies sold as private insurance contain maximums on the total amount that will be paid (such as $50,000) ; thus, they do not provide last dollar coverage or complete protection against catastrophic costs. However, there is a trend toward $250,000 limits or even unlimited plans. In addition, benefit payments are often 100 percent of expenses after the individual has incurred some large amount ($500 to $2,000) of out-of-pocket expenses.