I am a graduating resident and unfortunately have been denied disability insurance due to being perceived to be too high of risk. My employer will not provide a group policy. I have a history of short-term depression in college but have not had treatment and have not been on meds for 10 years. Also I have seen the doctor in the past for some back pain and other orthopedic injuries but have never required surgery or treatment other than NSAIDs. The underwriter cited these as the reasons for denying me. This is a HUGE deal for me as I am a single dad and if anything ever happens so that I cannot work, my family will be toast. What options do I have other than the obvious of being super frugal and saving as much as I can in an emergency/disability fund? Thanks.
Denied disability insurance - now what
- Thread starter drlard
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WOW! Another good reason to lie to your medical doctor. How did they find out - did you report it on the application or is it part of your MIB file?
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Blade28
Yikes! Have you tried going through your own agent to obtain a personal disability insurance policy?
My program here provides basic coverage, but I also have an add-on disability policy to provided extra coverage.
My program here provides basic coverage, but I also have an add-on disability policy to provided extra coverage.
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If you lie on your application, then try and collect decades later, they can declare your original application fraudulent and deny any payments. So, overall, I wouldn't recommend lying on your application.
There are many disability insurance companies out there. Usually, the best thing to do is get an agent. They will have you apply to 3 companies. They will usually get a sense of whether you will be accepted or rejected. If you will be rejected, they sometimes can withdraw your application prior. Unfortunately, being rejected for a disability policy is one of the questions they ask you when you apply for one. That's why most agents have you apply for three at once -- if one rejects you, it happened after you applied to the other two so you didn't lie when you said you had never been rejected.
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Begaster
Sorry for the stupid question, but aren't your medical records sealed? Doctor-patient confidentiality?
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Blade28
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Medical records are "sealed" but the first form you sign when applying for insurance is a consent to have them get all your medical records. You can't even apply without waiving all your HIPAA rights which is why HIPAA is just an albatross that doesn't do any good (different discussion). I echo aProg. If you lie on your app they'll collect your premiums until you make a claim. Then they'll check you out and if they find any issues you didn't mention you paid all those years for nothing. I'm not a fan of Michael Moore but he had an anecdote about a woman who was dumped from medical insurance after she made a claim because she had answered no to a question on the app about genital infections failing to disclose that once in college she had gone to student health for a yeast infection.
Now for the OP. I was in your same boat. No group coverage through job (that's the best thing to have), so I had to try to get insurance on the free market. I have HTN and high cholseterol so I was denied (it's a tight insurance market these days). So what to do?
I agree with getting an agent who will keep pressing underwriters to find you a policy. After about 4 applications I got a policy. It's spendy but it's decent coverage and it's own occ (insurancese for thay can't make you retrain).
You can have your agent try to get a policy with a waiver for your condition. That would be easier for you since you could try to get a policy that excludes mental health claims. I was trying to find one that would exclude issues realated to HTN and cholesterol and that turned out to be impossible.
If you still can't find anything I suggest self insuring by putting about $450 a month away. Once you get about 10 years in with some interest you will have about what a poor quality policy would have paid you if you became disabled.
Now for the OP. I was in your same boat. No group coverage through job (that's the best thing to have), so I had to try to get insurance on the free market. I have HTN and high cholseterol so I was denied (it's a tight insurance market these days). So what to do?
I agree with getting an agent who will keep pressing underwriters to find you a policy. After about 4 applications I got a policy. It's spendy but it's decent coverage and it's own occ (insurancese for thay can't make you retrain).
You can have your agent try to get a policy with a waiver for your condition. That would be easier for you since you could try to get a policy that excludes mental health claims. I was trying to find one that would exclude issues realated to HTN and cholesterol and that turned out to be impossible.
If you still can't find anything I suggest self insuring by putting about $450 a month away. Once you get about 10 years in with some interest you will have about what a poor quality policy would have paid you if you became disabled.
