Physicians & Disability

As a medical resident or fellow, you have invested much time, money, and energy into your profession.  If you’ve not already done so, it’s time to think about protecting that investment.

You’re not earning a practicing physician’s income yet, but you would have much to lose in future earnings if you became disabled now without a disability insurance policy. You could also risk your future earnings if you developed a potentially disabling condition before you get a good disability insurance policy.

Physicians, along with dentists, are more likely than any other profession or occupation to purchase an individual disability insurance policy.  There are several reasons why:

• Most physicians see sickness and disability every day in their practice of medicine. Many times it’s physicians who inform patients that they may qualify for disability.  This keeps the idea of becoming disabled front and center.
• Many physicians, especially specialists, perform fine motor skill procedures. An injury or sickness that does not disable the average worker might very well disable a physician for a long period of time, if not permanently.
• Physicians earn significantly more income than most workers. Whenever there’s more income earned, there’s more to be lost due to disability. Disability is one of the biggest financial fears of most physicians.
• Some physicians work in small practices and are responsible for providing their own disability insurance. Increasing numbers of physicians work for large clinics or hospitals. Many of those employers provide free group long-term disability benefits. But group disability benefits seldom provide the amount or quality of coverage most physicians need and want. This leaves a need for supplemental, individual disability policies that the physician must take the responsibility to purchase.

What Do You Have To Lose?

According to the Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2016, the average annual physician income nationwide is between $250,000-$300,000. Depending on your medical specialty, you could expect to earn more than the average.

As a resident or fellow, you are currently earning much less than the average practicing physician. If you became disabled now, you would lose your current income.  If you remained disabled long term or permanently, you would also stand to lose much or all of your potential future earnings.

That could be a lot to lose.  Based on a salary of $300,000 with a 2% annual increase, the average physician can expect to earn  over $11,000,000 during a 30 year career.

Consider a Disability Policy

There are several insurance companies that offer individual disability insurance policies that are appropriate for physicians.  For medical residents and fellows, most of them will typically offer a maximum policy of $6,000/month and one company will offer a maximum policy of $6,500/month.

To make it easier to afford disability insurance policies now, most of the leading carriers offer premium discounts to residents and fellows at qualified hospitals.

Purchasing a disability policy now would help protect your current income. By including Future Increase Options in your policy, you could also potentially protect your higher future income as well.