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Disability Health Insurance
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Disability health insurance is important to have, as it is a combination of disability and health are rolled into one. Consider the statistics, according to the Health Insurance Association of America, approximately 30 percent of American citizens who range from age 35 to age 65 will fall victim to one form of disability or another during their working years. In May 2000, according to the Norton Bankruptcy Adviser, an estimated 326,441 families were forced to file for bankruptcy in the preceding year and the number one reason cited was an injury or sickness that affected a member of the family. To look at in another way, that means that one out of every four debtors in the year 1999 became bankrupt because of a disability. Disability health insurance can help keep you from ending up in debt or in the poorhouse.
Not everyone understands a disability and many people believe that since they lead relatively safe commonplace lives that they do not need any form of disability health insurance. Most disabilities that alter people’s lives are due to an illness as injuries are only to blame for 13 percent of disabilities. Unfortunately illness cuts across all racial, social and economic boundaries. It affects people of all ages and it does not care what a person does for a living, where they live or how they spend their free time. Taking excellent care of yourself in all ways is always important but unfortunately it will not protect you from everything. That is why disability health insurance is so vital. Three of the most common serious diseases- heart disease, cancer and diabetes- can affect anyone at any time, regardless of lifestyle and occupation.
If you are not yet convinced that disability health insurance is important for you, consider the various types of impairments and the percentage of claims according to the HIAA Source Book of Health Insurance Data compiled between 1999 and 2000. An impairment of the back accounts for 18.2 percent of claims; emotional and psychiatric problems account for 12.7 percent of claims; neurological problems account for 11.3 percent of claims; injuries or illnesses to the arms or legs accounts for 9.o percent; heart and other cardiovascular problems accounts for 4.1 percent of claims; diabetes accounts for 3.6 percent; substance abuse (both drugs and alcohol) accounts for 3.3 percent; hearing problems accounts for 2.9 percent of claims; and vision problems accounts for 2.6 percent of claims. If you are still not sure that you really need disability health insurance then look further at other types of impairments and claims. Blood disorders of all sorts account for 2.6 percent of disability health insurance claims while cancer accounts for 2.3 percent; asthma accounts for 1.7 percent and a whopping 25.7 percent is classified as “Other” health related problem.
Disability health insurance can provide the backdrop of a “solid future financial plan.” You do not want to end up a sad statistic. You do not want to be one of the four people who are forced to file for bankruptcy this year or one of the 48 percent of homeowners who has to suffer the bank foreclosing on their mortgage.
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