Help a newbie get disability insurance

[knispow]

Hello everyone, 

I'm a new medical student and want to get setup with the right disability insurance. I'm looking for advice from new students, as well as resident and doctors if they can provide me some insights in "what they did, and what they should have done" when making this decision. 

 

Right now I have a choice between my provincial med association (not OMA, but similar offering) vs RBC offer vs RBC via CFMS. RBC seems more expensive, but also has more perks. 

 

I'm so new to this and its confusing comparing things I don't understand in detail: portability?, will the premium go up a lot?, should I stick with provincial because resident docs' premiums are covered (RBC not)?, what happens as a practicing physician? etc.

 

Could anyone comment on what is ideal, and protect my myself from being scammed by insurance companies (I pay my end but then they give me hell to fight, if I have to ever claim my benefits). 

 

Please and thank you!

[Bambi]

Wait until you are in 4th year, this is what I did, and there will be offers for it to be free for up to a year. Then, you only want to take out minimal insurance. and go to an independent broker who has a large book of doctors as clients. Wait! I went to RBC. Tu through an independent broker.

[NeuroD]

50 minutes ago, Bambi said:

Wait until you are in 4th year, this is what I did, and there will be offers for it to be free for up to a year. Then, you only want to take out minimal insurance. and go to an independent broker who has a large book of doctors as clients. Wait! I went to RBC. Tu through an independent broker.

This was my plan, minus the broker. Any reason why you didn't go directly to RBC? They seem to know what they're doing for docs. 

[IMislove]

I just got the OMA student special offer, it's only 4.2 bucks a month, not a large amount in the long run. Plus things can happen when one does sports/intramurals/travel, and if you're injured and can't study, well SOL when you're still perhaps paying rent or halfway in a semester and already paid the large amount of tuition. For residency onwards, things may change.

[Snowmen]

6 hours ago, Bambi said:

Wait until you are in 4th year, this is what I did, and there will be offers for it to be free for up to a year. Then, you only want to take out minimal insurance. and go to an independent broker who has a large book of doctors as clients. Wait! I went to RBC. Tu through an independent broker.

That's the worst possible advice (no offense intended, you usually give great advice). You never know what can happen during your studies and it doesn't take much to make you ineligible for most policies. You should get disability insurance ASAP while you're healthy since they can't drop you once they've accepted you.

RBC's insurance is good but there are other good options. You should see a few brokers or someone from MD financial and then decide based on what they recommend.

[Bambi]

1 hour ago, Snowmen said:

You never know what can happen during your studies and it doesn't take much to make you ineligible for most policies. You should get disability insurance ASAP while you're healthy since they can't drop you once they've accepted you.

The above is true. If taken early, you take the minimum allowable only as at this stage you have no income, and the real purpose is to confirm your insurability for later. 

[Bambi]

7 hours ago, PhD2MD said:

This was my plan, minus the broker. Any reason why you didn't go directly to RBC? They seem to know what they're doing for docs. 

I wanted “independent” advice from someone more experienced than me. As zsnowmen says, there are other good options, so why seek counsel from an independent experienced expert before making a final decision.

[rmorelan]

4 hours ago, Bambi said:

The above is true. If taken early, you take the minimum allowable only as at this stage you have no income, and the real purpose is to confirm your insurability for later. 

again doesn't that mean you are risking getting disabled as a medical student without coverage? That risk is low of course, but avoiding risk all together is the point of insurance

(a lot of this like most personal finance questions revolve around your personal risk tolerance - you can do things wrong but there is still a range of doing it right)

Bigger question is ok what exactly is the different between these, and what exactly should your disability package have? That way you are equal footing with discussing things with people. You have to look at things like yes the cost, but also is it guaranteed renewable, does it have a cost of living adjustment, does it have own occupation rules and how do they define what your occupation is now and in the future, when exactly does it kick in if you are injured as usually they are not immediate .....to name some examples