Investing in an individual disability insurance (IDI) policy is a priority for all doctors and healthcare professionals but there are gaps in coverage even in the best of policies. For instance, you would have received good advice about the need to make your primary investment on a long term IDI policy and rightfully did so. It is quite unlikely that you would have thought of something called the elimination period unless you read the policy fine print down to the last word. This is the period between your claim approval and the time when the policy benefits begin to roll out.
In a long term IDI policy, the elimination period can be anything between 30 and 90 days, which is a long time. If you suffer disability during the first decade of your career and are not able to work because of it, you will most likely have to bear the student loan repayments along with other bills. Doctors in the United States usually take more than a decade to pay off their student loans that average around $200,000. Even if you are a dentist with a higher than average income, it will take a decade to repay this loan. An individual dentist’s disability insurance will cover you well but what about the long elimination period?
An individual short term policy is the answer
In case your elimination period stretches up to 3 months you would have to pay all your bills out of your pocket for this duration. This is where a short term doctors disability insurance policy comes in handy with a maximum elimination period of 15 days.
Such a short term physicians disability insurance effectively neutralizes the long elimination period of a long term IDI policy that often stretches up to 3 months. A short term policy for disability coverage is very economical and also worthwhile but only as a complementary cover.
Look for adequate coverage but draw the line
The main purpose of a healthcare professionals disability insurance is to get adequate benefits that will replace at least 60-70% of your after-tax income. In the early days of your career, that objective is met with a standard IDI policy but as you grow into your profession with higher income, the gap in coverage gets wider.
To close the gap in coverage, you will have to make some smart investments in additional policies to stack up against your overall disability coverage. That is not really easy because you will need industry insights and updates to know about the most effective insurance products.
You will need professional guidance
Speaking of industry insights and updates, these are usually available with industry professionals. Similarly, in the case of the most comprehensive insights and updates can only be found with an industry professional.
A disability insurance broker is an industry professional but you must use proper references to find a reliable broker who has the experience to provide the best services to you. Invest some time and effort in finding the right broker in order to save time and effort in researching the most optimum disability coverage.
