Disability insurance

[Beekeeper]

We've been getting bombarded with lunches from various representatives discussing disability insurance now that we are graduating.

 

I know that it is important to get additional DI beyond what we get through PAIRO, but does anyone have suggestions on how to differentiate between what seem to be the three most popular: DOT Financial, OMA, CFMS/RBC? They all sound decently similar and entice you with their free food/sales pitches/free ipods, and I'm having a hard time deciding.

[cheech10]

IMO, disability insurance makes little difference until you finish residency. Even with the "own occupation" rider, until you finish residency you will be classed as a resident physician rather than your specialty, so your income replacement will be fairly low.

 

OTOH, I had 2 needlesticks during residency. So it's not a bad idea, just not the huge benefit that the salespeople try to make it out to be.

[Satsuma]

I think disability insurance is important...since most of us will be self employed, we'll have to get it ourselves anyway once we are done. In the meantime if you don`t get any, we have some through PAIRO (in ontario) - but the PAIRO one isn`t as good as the ones we buy indicidually, and I don`t recall the details, but I think there was a time limit to the PAIRO one in terms of how many years you would get the benefits??

 

The benefit of getting it early is no physical etc.. that is time sensitive. I forget exactly but we only had a few week after graduation for whatever deals they were offering.

 

It is true you would get less benefits than when you are staff as it is a function of your income. However, it isn`t like you would be choosing when you would be disabled, and so something is better than nothing for the rest of your life.

 

You are right, the plans seem very similar. I didn`t end up going with OMA though, since you have to remain a member, and I didn`t want to be stuck paying membership dues if I ended up moving. So that is something that differentiates and may or may not be important to you.

[Lactic Folly]

Yes, maintaining a provincial medical association membership for out-of-province physicians isn't cheap.

 

Even if you don't get it right away after medical school, there are still no-medical-needed offers for graduating residents:

https://www.oma.org/Benefits/Insurance/Residents/Pages/Essentials.aspx

[cheech10]

It is true you would get less benefits than when you are staff as it is a function of your income. However, it isn`t like you would be choosing when you would be disabled, and so something is better than nothing for the rest of your life.

 

But that's just it: the expected value of disability insurance is the risk that I will become disabled x the payout that I will get from the insurance. When you weigh this against the premiums that I will have to pay, it doesn't seem worth it to me. Obviously, I am taking a risk by not having insurance while being a resident, but wighing my options it didn't seem like a good deal. Despite what the salespeople say, not everyone NEEDS insurance.

 

Now that I am finishing my fellowship, OTOH, the expected value increases significantly as my income rises, and insurance looks like a better option, and I will be obtaining some.

[Satsuma]

Yeah, I guess it depends on your risk tolerance, and at least there is coverage with provincial associations while a resident.

 

I just wouldn't feel comfortable with only that...but I do lots of stupid things that make me more likely to be disabled one day! lol

[Ian Wong]

I was one of the people who bought into the salespitch as a med student, and actually got disability insurance during medical school. I've maintained it throughout residency and fellowship, and now during my first year as an attending.

 

I agree with cheech.

 

I think it's not substantially helpful to get it until you are getting close to being in practice. The reason being that if you have insurance during your training, then even if you become disabled, you are only going to get a minimal payout, as the compensation is proportionate to your current income (which is low as a resident, and non-existant as a medical student).

 

Yes, getting the insurance while in training "locks" it in, so that you always have it, but again, if you get disabled during your training phase, you get relatively little money. If you get disabled when you are an attending, in order to get more disability money back, you would have had to increase your disability premiums once you finished training, which would imply that you were still eligible to purchase the insurance at that point.

 

As an aside, UBC had a salesperson who visited during orientation and sponsored a dinner or something; many of my classmates went with this individual as well.

 

Ian