OMA vs. RBC Disability Insurance

[PJC]

Wondering if anyone has an opinion on OMA vs. RBC disability insurance as a resident? Is there truly a "right" or "wrong" choice?

Thanks!

[Bluberblubo]

There really isn't a right or wrong choice, you just have to decide what you are most comfortable with and if there is someone you enjoy working it. The only wrong choice in my opinion is choosing to have nothing, unless you are already rich enough to not have to work for the rest of your life in the event that you are disabled. 

RBC advantages are that you own the policy yourself and no one can change it except you and the cost does not change (unless you decide to increase how much you want to be covered for). OMA is group insurance so there is a chance that the policy can be changed, but for that to occur it is usually voted on by OMA members/insurance board. It's possible that it can be changed in a way to become worse for you, but that would be unlikely to happen in my opinion since the people voting for the change are also doctors and if the policy becomes bad then people will just go with RBC. That being said the OMA insurance was recently sold from one company to another, which was suprising although the policy remained the same. 

OMA disability insurance is non-profit so in the past if there was a surplus of money they would refund the members the difference. They no longer do that and in fact I believe the cost of the insurance has actually gone slightly up (something that would not happen with the RBC plan as mentioned above). 

RBC has an army of insurance agents, some of whom are VERY aggressive in trying to get your business (if you come across this, I'm referring to you Mark Levine. Not saying he is a bad person or a bad insurance agent, just that he was overly aggressive). I wasn't a big fan of this. Many RBC insurance agents use the fact that the OMA stopped giving out refunds as a reason to sign up with RBC but that's not an argument in my mind since RBC never gave out refunds in the first place. Although the fact that the premiums never go up would be a plus. RBC is obviously for profit and the insurance agents get a commission based on how much insurance they sell, something to keep in mind when talking to one of them. A lot of agents will also host great events for medical students and residents to get their business. All I'll say is there is such thing as a free lunch. 

The RBC and OMA premiums are fairly similar last time I checked (couple of years ago), although it is possible that OMA is now more expensive than RBC. 

In the end the most important thing about getting disability insurance is that if something happens to you and you need to go on disability insurance, you want to get paid. That's basically the bottom line. If you feel whoever you sign up with be it RBC or the OMA can provide that then that's all you need. Anecdotally, I have heard that it is more difficult for people to get paid if they have insurance through RBC than the OMA. Because RBC's goal is to make a profit in the end. If there were several doctors who had OMA disability insurance, filed a claim and weren't getting paid there would be outrage since the OMA is supposed to represent us. That would not necessarily be the case with RBC. This was enough reason for me to go with the OMA even if it might have been slightly more expensive. Also the fact that the OMA refunds have stopped and the rates have gone up, implies to me that they are actually paying out insurance to their members. 

I'll also end by saying that many doctors don't know much about insurance as well as finances. So keep that in mind when asking your friends. Good luck with your decision!

- random doctor on the internet who went with OMA insurance, so take that with a grain of salt

[PJC]

7 hours ago, skyuppercutt said:

There really isn't a right or wrong choice, you just have to decide what you are most comfortable with and if there is someone you enjoy working it. The only wrong choice in my opinion is choosing to have nothing, unless you are already rich enough to not have to work for the rest of your life in the event that you are disabled. 

RBC advantages are that you own the policy yourself and no one can change it except you and the cost does not change (unless you decide to increase how much you want to be covered for). OMA is group insurance so there is a chance that the policy can be changed, but for that to occur it is usually voted on by OMA members/insurance board. It's possible that it can be changed in a way to become worse for you, but that would be unlikely to happen in my opinion since the people voting for the change are also doctors and if the policy becomes bad then people will just go with RBC. That being said the OMA insurance was recently sold from one company to another, which was suprising although the policy remained the same. 

OMA disability insurance is non-profit so in the past if there was a surplus of money they would refund the members the difference. They no longer do that and in fact I believe the cost of the insurance has actually gone slightly up (something that would not happen with the RBC plan as mentioned above). 

RBC has an army of insurance agents, some of whom are VERY aggressive in trying to get your business (if you come across this, I'm referring to you Mark Levine. Not saying he is a bad person or a bad insurance agent, just that he was overly aggressive). I wasn't a big fan of this. Many RBC insurance agents use the fact that the OMA stopped giving out refunds as a reason to sign up with RBC but that's not an argument in my mind since RBC never gave out refunds in the first place. Although the fact that the premiums never go up would be a plus. RBC is obviously for profit and the insurance agents get a commission based on how much insurance they sell, something to keep in mind when talking to one of them. A lot of agents will also host great events for medical students and residents to get their business. All I'll say is there is such thing as a free lunch. 

The RBC and OMA premiums are fairly similar last time I checked (couple of years ago), although it is possible that OMA is now more expensive than RBC. 

In the end the most important thing about getting disability insurance is that if something happens to you and you need to go on disability insurance, you want to get paid. That's basically the bottom line. If you feel whoever you sign up with be it RBC or the OMA can provide that then that's all you need. Anecdotally, I have heard that it is more difficult for people to get paid if they have insurance through RBC than the OMA. Because RBC's goal is to make a profit in the end. If there were several doctors who had OMA disability insurance, filed a claim and weren't getting paid there would be outrage since the OMA is supposed to represent us. That would not necessarily be the case with RBC. This was enough reason for me to go with the OMA even if it might have been slightly more expensive. Also the fact that the OMA refunds have stopped and the rates have gone up, implies to me that they are actually paying out insurance to their members. 

I'll also end by saying that many doctors don't know much about insurance as well as finances. So keep that in mind when asking your friends. Good luck with your decision!

- random doctor on the internet who went with OMA insurance, so take that with a grain of salt

This is such great insights thank you so much! I was troubled because we were getting lots of lunch and learns that all pushed RBC insurance and it sounded great, but part of me couldn't help but wonder how much their conflicts of interest were playing a role in it. Also with limited financial literacy at this point having spent the last 8 years focusing on getting into and completing med school, I felt in a very vulnerable situation.

 

It is good to know that there is no real right or wrong choice. It seems the plans are very comparable. OMA used to be quite favourable during residency because of the discounted premiums, but it seems premiums have gone up and discounts are gone during COVID due to increased claims (which as you mentioned suggests at the very least that doctors are actually getting paid from OMA when making claims).

 

RBC for sure has the advantage of the one year free and then the level rates that can't change and technically over the course of a career has the potential to save you a couple thousand dollars (or more if OMA goes up even more).

 

At this point I think it's most important to just lock something in when I am young and healthy. I'm going to talk to a few more people about the options and go from there. I have learned a ton about disability insurance going through this, but ultimately still feel a bit in the dark with some of the finances stuff due to limited knowledge... Hoping to increase my financial literacy as I advance through residency, if for nothing else, just to improve my confidence and ability to critically think when given financial advice or am required to make a decision.

 

Thanks again!

[Bluberblubo]

On 4/5/2023 at 9:22 PM, PJC said:

RBC for sure has the advantage of the one year free and then the level rates that can't change and technically over the course of a career has the potential to save you a couple thousand dollars (or more if OMA goes up even more).

 

I'll add that you can also get level rates with OMA as well. It'll be more expensive up front but cheaper in the long run. For RBC they usually only advertise the level rate because their step rate I believe is more expensive than OMA's step rate. It's difficult to decide between the two (assuming you go with OMA) what I did was just calculated at what age the level rate would be cheaper than the step rate in the long run. I vaguely remember that it ended up being at the age of 47 or 51 or something. I then thought about, would I still need disability insurance at that age and my answer was yes I probably would, so even though I initially had the OMA step rate, I switched to their level rate. This is more expensive then if I had just signed up for the level rate, but c'est la vie. Not making the change in my mind would be due to the sunk cost fallacy so I wanted to avoid that lol. In any case, that was my mistake, so hopefully that's a mistake you can potentially avoid depending on your situation.

On 4/5/2023 at 9:22 PM, PJC said:

At this point I think it's most important to just lock something in when I am young and healthy.

This is the single most important thing.

On 4/5/2023 at 9:22 PM, PJC said:

ultimately still feel a bit in the dark with some of the finances stuff due to limited knowledge... Hoping to increase my financial literacy as I advance through residency, if for nothing else, just to improve my confidence and ability to critically think when given financial advice or am required to make a decision.

There is a hidden facebook group called "Physician Financial Independence (Canada)". Ask some residents or attendings to see if they can invite you to join it. That's the only way you will be able to get into the group. There is a lot of information in there for physicians, med students, etc. that you can learn from. Maybe sit down one weekend and go through it. It should really be a priority for everyone in medicine to improve your financial literacy because that can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars and significantly improve your burnout and all that badness. Also, it doesn't help that doctors are viewed as easy targets by people in the financial industry because we assume that just because we present treatment options for patients and recommend what we think would be best for them that others would do the same for us when in fact many would pressure you into making decisions that are in their best interest and not yours. 

In any case, good luck with your disability insurance decision and may you make lots of gold doubloons in your life! 

[PJC]

On 4/9/2023 at 11:54 AM, skyuppercutt said:

I'll add that you can also get level rates with OMA as well. It'll be more expensive up front but cheaper in the long run. For RBC they usually only advertise the level rate because their step rate I believe is more expensive than OMA's step rate. It's difficult to decide between the two (assuming you go with OMA) what I did was just calculated at what age the level rate would be cheaper than the step rate in the long run. I vaguely remember that it ended up being at the age of 47 or 51 or something. I then thought about, would I still need disability insurance at that age and my answer was yes I probably would, so even though I initially had the OMA step rate, I switched to their level rate. This is more expensive then if I had just signed up for the level rate, but c'est la vie. Not making the change in my mind would be due to the sunk cost fallacy so I wanted to avoid that lol. In any case, that was my mistake, so hopefully that's a mistake you can potentially avoid depending on your situation.

This is the single most important thing.

There is a hidden facebook group called "Physician Financial Independence (Canada)". Ask some residents or attendings to see if they can invite you to join it. That's the only way you will be able to get into the group. There is a lot of information in there for physicians, med students, etc. that you can learn from. Maybe sit down one weekend and go through it. It should really be a priority for everyone in medicine to improve your financial literacy because that can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars and significantly improve your burnout and all that badness. Also, it doesn't help that doctors are viewed as easy targets by people in the financial industry because we assume that just because we present treatment options for patients and recommend what we think would be best for them that others would do the same for us when in fact many would pressure you into making decisions that are in their best interest and not yours. 

In any case, good luck with your disability insurance decision and may you make lots of gold doubloons in your life! 

Thanks so much for this post! I really appreciate everyone's insights. I'll for sure look into the Facebook, that sound like a great community and something I'd like to look into as I am closing in on finally making money when I start residency this summer!

 

Thanks again.