(Newswire.net — September 30, 2021) —
You would have heard of people suffering from disability for long periods stretching 3-4 years or even more in some cases. In fact the average duration of long term disability in the United States is over 2½ years and that is enough to convince you to get a long term individual disability insurance (IDI) policy if you haven’t already. There is another more distressing side of disability and that is terminal illness, which can make a person disabled for his/her entire life. Your long term policy will cover you against disability till you reach retirement age and that’s a great benefit indeed. Now, if you are terminally ill, your disability will surely extend beyond your retirement age and even then you will need to continue paying your bills.
What additional benefit do you get in an AD&D policy?
There are very good reasons for you to get accident death and dismemberment (AD&D) coverage along with a long term doctors disability insurance policy. This policy will allow you to access a part of your death benefit when you are confirmed to be suffering from terminal illness that prevents you from working to earn your livelihood.
There are other benefits of such healthcare professionals disability insurance as well. Your insurance carrier could partially or fully waive your premium depending on your condition and also when you meet the terms and conditions of this policy. Many folks argue that there is no end to risks and it doesn’t make sense to get an AD&D policy but terminal illness isn’t an out-of-the-world possibility either.
Income replacement for terminal illness or lifelong disability
It becomes quite a challenge for insurance providers to determine the level of income replacement for a person who is terminally ill and disabled for most or his/her entire life. However, top quality disability companies have the right solutions to deal with this kind of complex situation.
On your part, you need to be realistic about the kind of income replacement you want from your physicians disability insurance. It doesn’t make sense to aim for 100% or even 80-90% income replacement as that is not possible since all policies have a cap. What you need is adequate coverage in the range of 60-70%, which is sufficient to pay your bills.
It is notable that accidents are a minor cause of disability
There are folks who jump to the conclusion that they will never get disabled because they are unlikely to meet with accidents. You can guess their reaction to any mention of an AD&D policy to them. They need to be told that such disability insurance services are basically add-on cover. They cannot afford to overlook a standard long term IDI policy because they may not suffer accidents as much as they are likely to fall ill.
What is it about illness, they may ask – well, 90% of disabilities are caused by illnesses and as stated above, the average tenure of disability in America is over 2½ years. Young doctors especially should get the healthcare professionals insurance because they carry huge debts of the student loan that take over a decade to repay. This insurance will pay all their bills in case of a long drawn disability.