A health plan covers the doctor. It does not cover the rent.
People insure the house and the car and the life, and leave the income uncovered — which is strange, because the income is what pays for the other three. Disability insurance replaces part of your paycheck if you get too sick or too hurt to work, and it is the coverage most people only think about once they need it.
This is about your own job, not any job. If you cut hair and break your wrist, the question is whether you can still cut hair — not whether you could do some other work instead. That is the difference between an own-occupation and an any-occupation policy, and it is the first thing to check before you buy one.
Quote it yourself, in about fifteen minutes.
Four kinds of coverage, all quoted and applied for online. Answer a few questions, see your own price, and get a decision — often straight away. Nothing here needs a phone call unless you want one.
Disability & critical illness, online
Short-term and long-term disability, critical illness and accident expense — all four quoted on the same page, priced for your own age and job. The quote takes seconds; the application takes about ten minutes and can be done on a phone.
Not sure which of the four you actually need, or whether you need any? Say what you do for work and what would happen if you could not do it for three months. You get a straight answer, including when the answer is that you are already covered.
The four kinds, and what each one pays
They get lumped together and they are not the same thing. The difference is what triggers the payment and how long it lasts.
Short-term disability
Pays you weekly, can start almost immediately, and lasts up to two years. This is the one that covers a surgery, a bad break, a recovery that keeps you off work for a few months. It is the most commonly used of the four and the one most people are missing.
Long-term disability
Pays you monthly, usually begins after about 30 days, and can run to retirement age. This is the one that matters if something ends your working life rather than interrupting it — the small chance with the large consequence.
Critical illness
Pays a single lump sum, an amount you pick when you buy, on a diagnosis such as cancer, heart attack or stroke. It is not tied to whether you can work. The money is yours, for the mortgage, the travel to treatment, or the months your partner takes off to look after you.
Accident expense
Pays you cash for the costs an accident leaves behind that major medical does not fully cover. Guaranteed issue, so health questions do not stand in the way.
Why this one gets skipped
Because it insures something that does not feel like a thing you own. A house burns down and you can picture it. A paycheck stopping for eight months is harder to see, even though it is far more likely and it arrives with all the same bills still due.
If you work for someone with a group plan, check what you already have before buying anything — some employers provide short-term disability, and some provide a long-term policy that replaces a smaller share of your pay than you would guess. The number to find is the percentage of income it replaces and the cap on it. A policy paying 60% with a ceiling that your salary passed years ago is not covering what you think it is.
And if you are self-employed, there is no group plan to check. Nobody is providing this for you, which is exactly why it is worth ten minutes.
Common disability insurance questions
How much does disability insurance cost?
It is priced on your age, your income and what you do for a living — a roofer and an accountant are not the same risk, and the price says so. The only honest way to answer it is to run your own quote, which takes seconds and asks for no payment details. As a rule of thumb it tends to land well below what people guess, because they are picturing the cost of covering their whole income rather than the share a policy actually replaces.
I am self-employed. Can I get disability insurance?
Yes, and you are the person who needs it most, because there is no employer policy sitting behind you. Being self-employed does not make this harder to buy — the application asks what you do and how much you earn, the same as it would for anyone. What it does change is that nobody else is going to arrange it for you, and no sick pay arrives if you stop working. If you work for yourself and your income stops the week you do, this is the coverage to look at before almost any other.
Does short-term disability cover pregnancy or maternity leave?
Often yes for the recovery after birth, but the timing is everything. A policy bought after you are already pregnant will generally treat the pregnancy as pre-existing and not pay for it — this is the single most common disappointment with short-term disability. To be covered, the policy has to be in place before conception, and most carriers also apply a waiting period of several months after the policy starts. If a family is in the plan for the next year or two, that is the moment to look at it, not after the test.
Is critical illness insurance worth it?
It depends on what else you have, and sometimes the answer is no. Critical illness pays a lump sum on diagnosis, regardless of whether you can still work and regardless of what your health plan pays. Its value is in the costs nobody budgets for — the travel to a treatment center, the deductible landing in January, the income of the person who takes time off to care for you. If you already hold disability coverage and a healthy emergency fund, it is a smaller gap than it looks. If a diagnosis would mean borrowing within a month, it is a large one. Put the payout next to what three months of your household actually costs, and the answer usually becomes obvious.
What is the difference between disability insurance and accident and hospital coverage?
They solve two halves of the same problem. Accident and hospital indemnity pays toward the bills a medical event creates — the deductible, the hospital stay, the costs your health plan leaves behind. Disability insurance replaces the income that stops while you are dealing with it. One covers what you owe, the other covers what you would have earned. Plenty of people need one and not the other, which is worth sorting out before buying either.
Would your income survive three months off?
That is the whole question. Say what you do for work and roughly what three months without pay would mean, and you get a straight answer about whether this is worth your money — including when it is not.