Long Term Disability Health Insurance Premiums

Individual or Group Policy

The first thing you should investigate is whether you can purchase a group policy, or if an individual policy is all you can obtain. A group policy is typically offered through your employer. The premiums are lower because the insurance company is able to calculate that some in the group will never become disabled. When you buy an individual policy, there is a great risk that you’ll use the coverage and therefore you’ll pay more.

Even though your long term disability health insurance premiums will be higher when purchased individually, don’t let the cost keep you from purchasing the coverage. The cost of being disabled without having coverage is far, far higher.

How Much Coverage do you Need?

You can get a rough estimate of your needs by taking your current yearly income and multiplying it by the number of working years you have left. Add in reasonable pay raises and 3% inflation per year for good measure.

Policy Provisions to Look For

Not all disability policies are equal. Some provide inadequate coverage or coverage that you are less-likely to qualify for. Here are some things to look for:

• Pays up to age 65. Some insurance will only pay up to age 50 or 55. If you were planning to retire at that age, then this coverage is adequate. However, if you were thinking of working until age 65 or later, you’ll be left with many years of no coverage before social security kicks in if you purchase an age 50 policy.

• How "disabled" is defined. Disabled is usually defined as "unable to perform current occupation" or "unable to perform any occupation." Losing a hand in an accident may make you feel like you can’t perform any occupation, but your insurance won’t agree. They’ll say there are jobs you can perform and so will not provide you with any benefits.

To avoid this problem, get a policy that defines disabled as not being able to perform your current job. This will cover far more accident possibilities than the totally disabled option.

Long Term Health Insurance Premiums

To find out how much your premiums will cost, you’ll need to fill out a quote. This can be done online through websites such as Quoteretriever.com and 4-Disability-Insurance-Quotes.com.

Information You’ll Need to Provide

Before you sit down at your computer to receive a quote, you should gather together the information you’ll need. This will make the process much simpler for you. Here is the most common thing you need to know:

• Contact Information: You will need to provide your address, phone number, e-mail address and the best time to reach you (to give you detailed quote information).

• Personal Information: Expect questions such as whether you use tobacco, which medications you are currently taking, a description of any other recent medical procedures, and possibly a detailed medical history as well.

• Employment Information: You need to provide what your current annual income is, whether you receive it in the form of a salary from your employer, what you earn through self-employment, or your share of corporate earnings. Sometimes you’ll also be asked to describe your work duties as well.

• Disability Coverage: If you currently have disability insurance, you’ll be asked to provide details such as the amount of income that is provided per month (should you become disabled). You will also choose (if you have options) of when benefits will begin (typically after 90 days of being disabled) and how long the coverage will last (go for age 65 as mentioned above).

Conclusion

While you may be young and healthy now, an unlucky accident can make you disabled in a matter of seconds. Take the time now to investigate your long term disability health insurance options so that you’ll be covered in case the unthinkable happens.