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Disability Insurance - Worth It?


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Do most residents and practising physicians purchase disability insurance?

 

Disability insurance was so affordable while I was in medical school. Now that I am entering residency, the monthly payment will increase by almost 2000% (from $4 to $70), so I am giving it some extra thought.

 

Thanks in advance.

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Do most residents and practising physicians purchase disability insurance?

 

Disability insurance was so affordable while I was in medical school. Now that I am entering residency, the monthly payment will increase by almost 2000% (from $4 to $70), so I am giving it some extra thought.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Most practising ones do - you have to protect the golden goose. 

 

as a resident you have some disability insurance included already if you are in Ontario for instance. There are issues about making sure it continues post residency etc though. 

 

personally for what it is worth I am insured beyond the baseline. 

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You want to have disability insurance (and a decent policy).  Unless you have no debt and/or a super rich family who can afford to support you if things go south, you need to cover your ass in case something catastrophic happens.  Unpredictable medical crap can happen to anybody at any time and it's important to be prepared.

 

I have the one through my residency program as well as OMA and CFMS (though I'm trying to consolidate to one additional plan).

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Do most residents and practising physicians purchase disability insurance?

 

Disability insurance was so affordable while I was in medical school. Now that I am entering residency, the monthly payment will increase by almost 2000% (from $4 to $70), so I am giving it some extra thought.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Yes, you should have disability insurance. If you were to become disabled, you'd lose out on significant amounts of current and future income, and you should have some hedge against it. I can't think of many reasons not to have disability insurance unless you're basically ready for retirement. $70/month seems pretty high for residency, however - if you haven't already, you should explore your options, including both private insurance and association-based insurance (such as through the OMA) to see what would work best in the short and long term. If you're in Ontario for residency, as noted, you do get automatic disability insurance through PARO, but it has its limitations and there can be some advantages to signing up for separate disability insurance at this stage.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for your responses.

 

Any thoughts on the various financial companies offering it and why you went with one over the other? NFP, Abrams, Clarity, Integrated and Moakler.

None of the above, for now. I'm sticking with just the OMA plan through residency - it's dirt cheap and will payout in full in conjunction with the PARO plan. Most disability insurance explicitly will not pay its full value if you have another insurer so you don't profit from your own disability. Since the private plans can't match OMA rates in residency, I'll stick with them for now.

 

Once residency finishes and the premium subsidies vanish then I'll reevaluate.

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None of the above, for now. I'm sticking with just the OMA plan through residency - it's dirt cheap and will payout in full in conjunction with the PARO plan. Most disability insurance explicitly will not pay its full value if you have another insurer so you don't profit from your own disability. Since the private plans can't match OMA rates in residency, I'll stick with them for now.

 

Once residency finishes and the premium subsidies vanish then I'll reevaluate.

 

Yeah this is likely what I am doing as well (though transferring to the equivalent in another province). More than enough coverage, and I'll bump up some life insurance (I have dependents and lots of debt, haha).

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Yeah this is likely what I am doing as well (though transferring to the equivalent in another province). More than enough coverage, and I'll bump up some life insurance (I have dependents and lots of debt, haha).

 

it is the dependents part of that which matters :) If you have no dependents then your need for life insurance could very well be zero (or close to it). 

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is the consensus then that the PARO plan isn't enough? That's all I have right now... maybe I need to re-evaluate

 

well ok the PARO one is what 4500 a month if it applies. Most basic question I guess would be let's say you become permanently disabled then. Would you be happy with earning 4500 after tax indexed for inflation for the rest of your life? That is say 54K a year. Keep in mind what ever debit you have would still need to be paid off. 

 

Next what happens if you develop a condition which does not disable you during residency but will latter on. Say MS as just an example. Can you get disability insurance in the future with now a known medical condition? 

 

and disability is all about managing risk - can you live with the uncertainties presented above? Can you sleep at night in effect :)

 

me personally - not so much ha. so I made arrangements -  I will get about 110K tax free and indexed if I am disabled and a cash sum to destroy all debit. 

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Yeah taking an LMCC study break. PARO plan isn't enough because it only covers us during residency...and when you become a staff physician, the disability insurance coverage stops and you have to get insurance somewhere else.

I think that getting disability insurance as early as possible when you are in good health and no chronic diseases (who knows might happen?) :)

One of my staff got good disability insurances before his cancer diagnosis was made! I learned a lot of insurance lessons from him, always buy early when you are in good shape! :P

 

is the consensus then that the PARO plan isn't enough? That's all I have right now... maybe I need to re-evaluate

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  • 2 weeks later...

Reviving this thread as we've been getting quite a few talks from several brokers. Are there specific things I should be looking for in a broker? Any questions I should ask before I sign up? They all offer the same RBC insurance.

 

I already have our province-specific disability insurance, but would like to get another while early in my studies/career.

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Reviving this thread as we've been getting quite a few talks from several brokers. Are there specific things I should be looking for in a broker? Any questions I should ask before I sign up? They all offer the same RBC insurance.

 

I already have our province-specific disability insurance, but would like to get another while early in my studies/career.

 

not so much the broker but the insurance you should be asking about. 

 

the brokers are pretty much like sales people all selling EXACTLY the same thing. They may offer other services (actually they all do - that is a big part of their business. Active management of your investments for instance, helping set everything up etc.)

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Its worth to get insured you never know the trouble is coming for you. I have seen people fallen apart with no insurance 

 

 

Yeah taking an LMCC study break. PARO plan isn't enough because it only covers us during residency...and when you become a staff physician, the disability insurance coverage stops and you have to get insurance somewhere else.

I think that getting disability insurance as early as possible when you are in good health and no chronic diseases (who knows might happen?) :)

One of my staff got good disability insurances before his cancer diagnosis was made! I learned a lot of insurance lessons from him, always buy early when you are in good shape! :P

 

yeah that is another example. Have to protect the most important investment in your life - yourself. 

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The answer is "it depends". I had to assess my own financial situation as well as that of my family. If you die, your LoC doesn't get passed onto your family/spouse/etc, but if you're disabled you are expected to pay it off (or declare bankruptcy). My wife and I bought a house, and I decided to insure myself for life insurance for the amount to pay it off + reasonable expenses, but not an excessive amount more (I think it was ~400k). I believe it was a 20 year term, as I figure if I'm healthy over the next 20 years, I should have saved enough to forego further life insurance.

 

I also opted for a small amount of critical illness insurance - I don't remember the amount.

 

For disability insurance, I didn't go crazy, because we are insured by PARO - I don't remember the exact amount, but I think it was an additional $4000/month.

 

I did this all about a year ago so am a little hazy on the details. I had to to a medical exam since I didn't get insured during medical school (I highly suggest this to anyone reading this! Even a small amount).

 

Hope this helps. I think it's important to think of your own responsibilities if something happens and what you need. Everyone will be slightly different.

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  • 4 weeks later...
5 hours ago, flyingmonkeys said:

Any suggestions when looking for disability insurance? I'm looking at RBC/OMAs plans and was wondering if anyone had any advice/feedback about them.

Best to speak to someone from RBC, and someone from OMA separately about the plans. With this information in hand, go to one of the brokers (NFP, Moakler, Abrams, Clarity, Integrated) and see if they are able to offer you any additional perks.

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