Disability insurance

[Vanquisher]

Okay, so disability insurance is freakin expensive. We have a financial guy who works with doctors and residents exclusively (his wife is a urologist, I think) coming to our house on Monday to help us chart our financial ascent from the bowels of the earth. One of the things he is big on is disability insurance.

I have always thought of diasbility insurance as expensive and unnecessary because of coverage limits and cost/benefit. Am I wrong? Do you have it? Would you get it?

[DCJenn]

Re: Disability insurance

We absolutely have it- even though the Army has disability coverage and my job jhas disability coverage. We have enough disability insurance to cover what we would lose if the good dawkter were unable to work. (and same for me but since I make 1/3 the salary, it's sort of a non-event.)

Jenn

[JaneDoe]

Re: Disability insurance

Totally wrong! It is expensive, but worth it. It's my understanding that your Dh is more likely to become disabled during his working/productive years than to die. (I know it sounds really morbid). Therefore, the disability insurance is very important. Your family would be screwed without his income.

Right now, my Dh is looking into increasing his disability coverage limits. Holy Moly! The premiums more than double. But, we just have to do it.

Re: Disability insurance

It's a must - especially for a surgeon. Imagine if he broke his wrist and he couldn't operate for X amount of time, and you were being paid on production.

[Auspicious]

Re: Disability insurance

Definitely have it, and consider it more important than life insurance (though we have both). Though I agree the cost is absolutely cringe-worthy. This one definitely gets filed under "being an adult sucks!"

[mommax3]

Re: Disability insurance

Totally agree......gotta have it. Travis gets his trhough ACOG (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology). I am not sure about the cost, but my impression was that it was the cheapest at the time he was looking, so you might want to look at what Chad's professional organization offers.

Sally

Re: Disability insurance

Ditto all of the above. An expensive, PITA, must have that you want to never have to use.

I have a couple of premiums to pay here and, ugh, it is expensive. I wish I didn't have real life experience with this but we do -- for my MIL. I have NO IDEA what we would do to pay her bills if she didn't have disability income (hers was through her employer which has some extra issues attached to it).

I believe that the premiums are based on income, at least in some part, so if you can start a policy while he is still a resident, it might save you some money down the road. We increased DH's coverage in the last days of his residency. Here are a few things I would ask insurance dude:

-- Is there a cost of living adjustment rider on the policy?
-- Can the premium be graded so you pay less now and more later?
--What is the waiting period? (DH's is 90 days)
-- Is the policy occupation or specialty specific? (You don't want them saying you can be a greeter at Wal-Mart or if there is some other occupation that can be done, you still get coverage if you can't do the specialty work)
-- Are there any group or association discounts?
-- How long do you have that rate -- will the rates change beyond a certain amount?

Also, I remember Makai saying they got better rates through the AMA. I think it was the AMA. That is on my list of things to check out.

[Vanquisher]

Re: Disability insurance

Thanks everyone. I guess I just assumed (or hoped) that this was one of those "fear the worst" things where you are paying for a 10-foot thick bomb shelter when all you really need is a gallon of water?

Suck.

Re: Disability insurance

Following our mortgage, insurance premiums are our second biggest expense. Now we're looking to add long term care insurance and just received a quote..... :bummer:

Yeah...it sucks having to fork over so much money for something that we'll probably (hopefully) never use.

[migirl]

Re: Disability insurance

I'm late here, but I agree: Chad definitely needs disability. The premiums are painful, but necessary. We started DH's policy during residency, so we locked into some good rates. And Nellie has a good point about asking whether the policy is specialty-specific.

[planet]

Re: Disability insurance

I will add that it is a must have. Now, saying that, we've yet to purchase ours. What I have in some compartment in my head: Guardian Select was one that offered "own Occ" as in occupation specific. Also rates go up (33 or 34 yrs old?) and when you are an attending. The best rate we were quoted had a ryder (?) that gave a one time adjustment within a year of purchase. It IS worth looking at what organizations have; AMA and also look at whatever group there is for ortho (like there's ACEP for EM). The FP we talked to is pretty frustrated with us for putting it off, but it IS hugely expensive.

Makes you want to hit your head on a wall, no? But given the investment made to date it is unthinkable to not have disability.

Re: Disability insurance

Janet, I think that Berkshire bought out Guardian. DH has the Provider Plus or something like that -- maybe that is the spiffy new name.

[Cumberland]

Re: Disability insurance

We have it through the AMA, as recommended on this site. I think it is written by New York Life. Ours isnt super expensive, bc he is is a fellow, he doesnt qualify for big buck monthly payments.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Disability insurance

We just had an appt about this yesterday. We went with Guardian. Our insurance guys said that they are currently the best at offering occupation specific insurance. They're the most expensive but have best coverage when it comes to paying out. Just in case we got quotes from 2 other people and it was the same across the board. DH's jobs provides 1/3 as part of his benefits, so we ended up going for 2/3 (the whole being the max allowed, which is 60% of his salary). But since we'll be paying the premium post-tax, the payout would be tax-free (and as a result very close to his actual paycheck).

Our policy provides coverage until he's 65 and also includes insurance on his pension plan. This means that if he's disabled and can't contribute to his 401 or another pension fund he's currently part of, the insurance would make a payment into the 401/pension fund. All this is going to cost us a little over $5K a year.

Let me know if you have any question, as this topic is very fresh on my mind right now.

Re: Disability insurance

Does his work based coverage allow him to receive the other benefits on top of the work coverage?

My MILs coverage (employer based) subtracts out the Social Security disability payments she receives. After finding out about that, I wanted to double check that the Berkshire/Guardian coverage would not do the same -- they do not and would pay out the disability coverage regardless of other policies or SS disability.

Thanks! That is good to hear that you compared and thought that was the best option. We need to do that too.