When we speak of getting insurance cover for doctors against disability and loss of income, you should always go for a group long term disability insurance (IDI) policy. That’s because the average duration of disability in the United States is over 2½ years and a short term policy covers you for just 6 months. The minimum period of coverage that a long term IDI policy offers is 2 years and the maximum period of coverage could stretch right up to your retirement age depending on your disability and other factors surrounding it. Although rare, there are folks who have suffered life-long disabilities and have not been able to work and earn an income. They received the benefits of their IDI policy for that duration.
Doctors’ incomes are 4 times higher than the national average and it is difficult to get adequate risk coverage with a group policy. In the early part of your career, when you would still be carrying the debt load of the substantial student loan, it is necessary to have a policy that won’t fall short in terms of the necessary coverage duration and benefits. While in employment, you would have a group short term or long term doctors disability insurance policy from your employer. If you rely just on that policy for adequate coverage, it would be a mistake because, on its own, a group policy will fall way short of giving you adequate coverage.
A group long term policy will complement your IDI policy
Your IDI policy will provide adequate coverage as long as your income is within a certain limit. In other words, it needs to be low enough in comparison to what doctors normally earn. That can happen only in the very early stages of your career, preferably within the first 5 years.
However, as you grow in your profession and your income rises to higher levels, your IDI policy coverage will also begin to fall short of what is considered adequate coverage. This is where a group long term healthcare professionals disability insurance policy will complement your IDI policy; it is also quite affordable.
You need to know about the limitations of a group policy
Most insurance carriers apply a ceiling on the number of benefits they offer to customers. In an IDI policy, the ceiling is quite high while in a group policy it is very low. Whichever way you look at it, a group policy both long and short term, will fall way short of adequate coverage.
The best way to utilize a group disability insurance policy is to use it as an add-on to your IDI policy when your income level grows and exceeds the ceiling limit of this policy. As explained earlier, it costs relatively less and provides you with optimum overall or adequate cover along with your IDI policy.
As you grow in the profession, your income grows higher with each passing year and you keep moving toward financial independence, wherein you don’t really need cover against disability. Till such time you need to stack up your insurance to cover the higher income. For this, you need to buy from MGIS, an insurance carrier that specializes in providing comprehensive disability cover to doctors. Please visit https://www.mgis.com for more information.
