Don’t Drag Your Feet, It’ll Cost You
A few years ago, I met with a dozen employees of a pharmacy in Palm Beach County, Florida. They had major medical health insurance but were interested in cancer and accident insurance. This type of insurance is also known as Voluntary, Supplemental, or Catastrophic Insurance. Major Medical Health Insurance will pay the doctors and hospitals their portion of the medical expenses.
But what if you are diagnosed with an illness such as cancer or have an accident and cannot work. How will you pay your rent, mortgage, car note, utilities, groceries, and other everyday living expenses? Unless you have disability insurance or money set aside for an emergency fund, you will have a financial crisis to go along with your medical crisis.
Procrastinate Later: Eight out of the twelve employees decided to move forward with the accident policy. One who declined the policy was very interested and saw the value of this type of insurance. This lady even said how inexpensive it was. Nevertheless, she told me that she needed more time to think about it. A week went by and no decision.
Two weeks later, the woman phoned me in a panic. She was in the hospital suffering from a terrible car accident. She told me that she would like to apply for the accident policy. Unfortunately, this was not the right time. That would be like calling State Farm and asking to apply for Homeowner’s Insurance while your house is on fire.
Regretfully, this employee had very little money saved and was in a bind on how she was going to pay for the out-of-pocket medical expenses not covered by her health insurance policy as well as her everyday living expenses. An accident policy would provide cash that would have helped pay for her out-of-pocket expenses and her living expenses.
I urge all working people to either make sure you have an emergency fund set aside in case something unforeseen happens, or own a disability or accident policy.
My Personal Anecdote About the Drunk Driver
In 1992 I was working at a hospital in Broward County, Florida as a Registered Nurse. One Sunday evening after I worked a twelve hour shift and I called a Chinese food restaurant and ordered some takeout. I was a few miles away from the restaurant when a car driving north in the opposite lane made a sharp sudden u-turn right in front of me. Unable to stop in time, I crashed into him at almost full speed. The ambulance took me to the hospital where I spent almost a week recovering from very serious injuries. After I was discharged, I spent the next five months getting physical therapy and the next ten months not being able to work. Originally when I got my job, I was offered disability insurance. I was in excellent health and decided that I didn’t need it. Instead, I put money into a travel fund. I felt invincible and thought that disability insurance was for people who were much older than me at the time or were in a high-risk jobs.. The possibility of ever getting into a serious car accident and not being able to work for a long time never occurred to me. I certainly didn’t have another source of income to pay my rent, car note, utilities, and groceries. My health crisis deal was compounded with a financial crisis and I learned the hard way of the importance of insuring your most valuable asset…your income.
I ended up using my travel fund to pay my expenses during my recovery. Don’t let this happen to you.
How long could you sustain your present lifestyle if you lost your source of income? If you’re like most people, your answer is probably a year of less. Most people insure their homes and their vehicles, but forget to insure their income. Yet, without an income, homes, vehicles and other basic elements of living become unaffordable. Likewise, many people remember to provide life insurance for their loved ones in the event of death, but they forget to secure income protection to provide for their loved ones in the event of disability. These are critical financial planning mistakes.
About 30 percent of Americans age 35 to 65 will suffer a disability lasting at least 90 days sometime during their careers, according to the Health Insurance Association of America. Should you ever need the protection a disability policy can offer, you’ll be glad you took financial precautions. Without coverage, an unexpected disability can easily drive you into serious debt. Unless you’re independently wealthy, you need insurance if you stand a chance to lose your income because of a disability. Getting the right policy isn’t easy.
We can help you find the right disability insurance policy to protect your income.
