This was engrained in my head before I even really knew what it was about. When I was in High School it was just me and mom in the house. Brother was gone off to college, my father lived 900 miles away (had since I was 2), and my grandparents were in Florida for the winter. My mother became extremely ill and was in the hospital for months until they were able to diagnose her fairly rare disorder. Then after that she was in and out of the hospital for short periods of time. I was worked 20 hours a week but was on my own for the most part. My girlfriend's parents at the time were great and was able to keep the status quo except for my daily visit with my mother in the hospital not knowing what was wrong or even if she was going to live.
Money was not an issue and the bills were paid. The only reason why is because my mother had both long and short term disability without that who knows what would have happened. Yes, I would have survived but it would have either drained the rest of my family or I would have had to leave school to work.
Fast forward a bit, I work a job that has a fair risk of disabling injuries. I have had too many friends go out on an injury and not have disability insurance and even though they aren't fully healed they are scrambling to find another job to pay the bills because a disability pension won't cover it.
As my mother's case shows even if you aren't in a high risk job anyone can get sick or even injured in a car accident or have some other issue.
So please folks get it if you don't have it.
Granted short term disability can be rather expensive one can usually self insure after awhile if you can accumulate paid time off. Fortunately this is the case for me, though my wife only works part time so I have not been able to find a policy for her and have to have that 90 days of her salary set aside.
Fortunately long term disability is fairly cheap. Mine is $10 a month and provides 60% of my salary couple that with my disability pension of 50% being that it is tax free. I will actually bring home more than I make at the time. So finding another job immediately would not be an issue.

So please folks get some sort of coverage. Just found out this week another one of my good buddies is not going to get to come back to work and now he is scrambling to get another job before his time is up and the cash from his paid leave time is cashed out.

Not every one can get it unfortunately. I sold it for years, you would not believe the occupations not covered. Strangely doctors all have different classifications, with podiatrists having the worst classification of all, guess they want to get out of smelling people's feet.

As an electrician it's not possible for me to buy or if I can it's very limited, think AFLAC. If you have it available to you and you are not taking either through work or private insurance, you are making a big mistake. My girlfriend just went out of work for 4 months and if not for the insurance she'd been screwed.

Black you are a LEO, or some other government employee right? If so that is why your LTD is only $10 a month. Even company policies are much more expensive, and individual policies are even more pricier than that.

If you are purchasing your own buy OWN OCC, not ANY OCC. The difference is you can be too disabled to do your job, but not too disabled to be a walmart greeter. If you can work other jobs than your own, then you don't get benefits.

I second Black, get some!

Yes, I know everyone's situations and options differ but if you can get something one needs to get it.
If it had not been for my mother's situation I probably would have scoffed at it.

Amen.

I carry a policy through work that will pay up to 60% to combine with a disability retirement to reach 100% of my pre-disability inncome. Premium is negligible. I also join the group sickleave bank, so if I need more sick days than I have built up (over 20 right now) I can get it from the pool.

Aflac, as well. Just mailed in 3 health screening forms for my 2 kids and I. $180 just for getting physicals/eye exams.

I pay about 1/4 my salary every year in medical, dental, Aflac, long-term, Flex spending, and life insurance. It's mind-boggling, but it's necessary.

Yet another topic that hits home from Sigforum!

My wife is on disability, and has been for about 18 years, after she was seriously injured during a surgical operation.

Now my son is venturing out into the world. He's got a good job working for a company that maintains commercial landscape property. He's about to get his Horticulture degree, has the state certifications for pesticides and fertilizers, etc. But, his company does not offer disability insurance.

I suspect for him to go out on his own to get disability insurance would be cost-prohibitive for him. Anyone have any ideas how to find a professional association he could join that might have group discounts on disability insurance? I'm wondering if the reason his employer doesn't offer disability insurance might be because he's in a high risk occupation. Any recommendations?

quote:

I also join the group sickleave bank, so if I need more sick days than I have built up (over 20 right now) I can get it from the pool.

Interesting. I have not heard of a running pool before. We can donate to folks when the need arises. I have been on 11 years and can think of maybe 4 times where people have needed time donated and most of those were people whose kids were battling cancer.
My employer is fairly generous we can carry 610 hours of sick time and accumulate 120 hours a year. With the amount of Holiday and vacation provided it is pretty easy not to ever touch sick time. I have never touched mine so I have about 15 weeks built in at anytime and get the 120 hours paid out yearly.

Honestly I have never calculated what percentage of our pay that we spend on medical, dental, disability, and life insurance. I know it is a big chunk but so worth it but not sure I really want to break down the percentage. I did that with my taxes last year, I was in a bad mood for a
few weeks because of that.

quote:

Originally posted by btanchors:
Yet another topic that hits home from Sigforum!

My wife is on disability, and has been for about 18 years, after she was seriously injured during a surgical operation.

Now my son is venturing out into the world. He's got a good job working for a company that maintains commercial landscape property. He's about to get his Horticulture degree, has the state certifications for pesticides and fertilizers, etc. But, his company does not offer disability insurance.

I suspect for him to go out on his own to get disability insurance would be cost-prohibitive for him. Anyone have any ideas how to find a professional association he could join that might have group discounts on disability insurance? I'm wondering if the reason his employer doesn't offer disability insurance might be because he's in a high risk occupation. Any recommendations?

You might be surprised at the cost.
https://www.zanderins.com/disability/getquote

An important thing to keep in mind is the type of disability insurance you purchase. For example with Social Security Disability the bar is quite high. You cannot do any kind of work whatsoever. For example a surgeon losing both hands can be told to work as a telemarketer with a hands free phone.
In contrast a private disability plan which is job specific, ie cannot work as a surgeon would provide coverage. Disability insurance coverage is more important in my opinion than life insurance.

The rates for physicians used to be lower many years ago, now with the advent of "managed care" many are too burned out, and go out on disability.

PLEASE listen to these guys.

I got divorced, left the service and started a new career; and then a new family after being essentially broke....I never thought I would need anything like AFLAC....

2 years ago I had a stroke (they said it was not work related, although my torn artery was due to my work required running) I was in uniform and at work, but hey, workers comp is designed to deny everything...sooo....

If I'd have had that policy I could have not lost some income-it wasn't much, I don't take off unless I'm sick and I had 16 years of sick time banked... 2 months later..THANK GOD I was paid at my regular rate and I was ABLE to go back to work

fast forward two years and I have had a "seizure" across my stroke area and I have had the same symptoms as my earlier stroke..

Turns out that I will be retiring on a medical retirement and will receive just over the poverty line (even though I put in for 18 years), and to boot, I will never do the job that I wanted to do since I was around 5 yoa.....let that sink in.....

I wish I hadn't spent that money on beer or liquor or crazy Friday nights on the little money I could have used for something like AFLAC and then I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now.

I cannot ever get an insurance policy again due to my freak (little arteries in my brain) abnormality.

PLEASE go buy a policy for short or long term....or both...

Watch for limitations though. My employer sponsored STD/LTD policy excludes any payment for a condition that you are being treated for at the time you sign up for a period of three years. I did not sign up for it as I have been under a doctor's care for Hypertension and a X3 CABG procedure done in 1998 and figured that would have been the most likely thing to occur.

I had an AFLAC accident policy that I claimed on after my off the job shoulder injury. My outpatient surgery did not qualify me for the hospitalization benefit. Work loss was not paid again due to no hospital stay.

I was able to get reimbursement for most of my out of pocket but it pretty much broke even and I was still out two weeks pay. So my AFLAC payments for the year pretty much covered what I got back from them for my claim, a wash so to speak.

I had to use short and long term 3 years ago this month when I shattered my left humerus bone. I was out for 6 months. I found out something I always took for granted saved my butt!

I've always had both. I'll be using the STD when I get a knee replaced later this year.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
An important thing to keep in mind is the type of disability insurance you purchase. For example with Social Security Disability the bar is quite high. You cannot do any kind of work whatsoever. For example a surgeon losing both hands can be told to work as a telemarketer with a hands free phone.

This is a gross generalization of a very complicated program. My wife just won her SSD case after 2.5 years and is allowed to work within her limitations. SSD is a lifetime award, but she was told that she will be reevaluated in about three years to see if she improves.

She is also receiving workmans comp, which is an entirely different issue. I now understand why people loose their minds and become tower snipers.

Black92LX,

Many thanks for the lead for the disability insurance quote! I did plug some numbers into their site and the monthly premium is quite reasonable. I will talk to my son about it this weekend.

I would also like to stress to others reading this thread about getting disability insurance. When my wife was injured in a botched surgery, we had no clue she would be injured so badly. Thank god she had good disability insurance. She is on Social Security disability and also gets a supplement from her disability insurance.

Stuff like this happens and it comes out of nowhere when you least expect it. Please look into this if you don't already have it.

If you have a mortgage or someone depends on your income it is a necessity.

I wonder how many people that have concealed carry insurance, a statistically unlikely need, have disability insurance, a much more likely need?

If you are part of a company that offers group benefits and they include an option for STD/LTD then it's a good idea to sign up, it's not expensive, and yes folks can get turned down but it's worth having if you can.

A timely reminder; my annual insurance and optional coverages renewal period at work is this month. I'll definitely look into this. Thanks for the thread and discussion, all!

Read the fine print.
My lady was just​ out 10 weeks with a back injury. ST disability denied it because it was a work injury. Workman's compensation denied it because, even though she emailed her supervisor the day I happened, she saw her PMD for it before she saw a Workman's Compensation doctor for it.
No payment, from anyone, and now all of her PTO is used up.

Read the fine print.

Bruce

Definitely a believer in STD/LTD. They've saved my bacon a few times. Both policies offered by my employer, and a policy offered by a private co. But at group rates through my employer. Go with the highest monthly payout you can afford, with both coverage for accident and illness. When you are sick, having money roll in to cover the mortgage and food really helps.
Also, if they offer a Cancer policy, consider it. I paid 20/ month for 20 years. When I got NHL they paid me double the premium for each month I had paid since day one. Then tacked on another 1K. In my case, it was one less worry. At least about money.
Insurance is playing the odds. What may not seem like a good bet at 30, sure does about 30 years down the road when the body starts wearing out. Protect yourself.