Like others in the medical profession, disability insurance for nurse anesthetists plays a major role in protecting your income. And since a certified nurse anesthetist is one of the highest earning nursing specialties, it is important to protect those earnings from a sickness or injury that prevents you from working for an extended time period.
What to Expect – Disability Insurance for Nurse Anesthetists
As mentioned in other articles on this site, disability insurance (or income protection insurance, as it is sometimes called) is priced using your age, your gender, your health and your occupation. Disability insurance for nurses is no different. Of course, premiums for these policies are commensurate with the size of your benefits as well.
Unlike the larger population of registered nurses, which is predominantly women, nurse anesthetists are split fairly evenly between male and female. The average age is 43 and, logically, health varies from person to person.
Disability insurance for nurse anesthetists has similar occupation classes, which dictates how much the policy costs amongst the major carriers. That being said, it is vital to comparison shop if you want to get the most benefits for your premium dollar.
For ExampleCarrier A and Carrier B both rank their disability insurance for nurse anesthetists as a “3” occupation class. (The higher the number, the less expensive the cost.) For a 43-year-old male nurse anesthetist, looking for $5,000 per month in coverage to age 65, the pricing is as follows: Carrier A’s policy costs $299 per month. Carrier B’s policy costs $256 per month.
From the example above, you see that, although the policies have the same benefits, they have very different pricing. If you don’t think that a $43 (almost 17% more) difference matters, that’s over $500 per year. Over the life of a disability insurance policy, we’re talking about thousands of dollars in additional costs.
What to Look For
Like other highly-specialized professions, we normally suggest that disability insurance for nurse anesthetists be purchased with a true “own occupation” definition of disability.
True own occupation simply means that, if you are unable to perform the duties of a nurse anesthetist due to sickness or injury, you can make a claim on your policy. Even if you return to work in another capacity (such as an administrative role), because you are unable to do YOUR JOB, your disability benefits will continue to be paid.
Unlike other forms of own-occupation disability, such as “not otherwise engaged” or “transitional”, true own-occupation coverage pays benefits no matter what you’re doing or earning, as long as you are unable to do your job as a nurse anesthetist.
Something else to consider is your total monthly benefit amount. Because individually owned or private disability insurance normally pays benefits tax-free, so you can normally only purchase up to 65% or so of your salary.
The average salary for a nurse anesthetist is 155k. 65% of that is a little over 100k/yr or about $8,400 per month. Some companies may reduce that maximum amount.
Because disability insurance is somewhat expensive but also critical to own, we often suggest doing an internal budgeting audit of what you actually need in income vs. what you’re earning.
Like a mortgage, just because you’re eligible for a higher amount, doesn’t mean that you have to purchase it. After all, having a disability policy in force, at any amount, is a sweet relief if you were to become disabled and unable to work.
Summary
Designing the right disability insurance policy that fits an insured’s needs and goals is not a simple task.
Helping to purchase disability insurance for nurse anesthetists is no different.
Disability insurance is primarily what we do. We specialize in this market due to its complexity and necessity. If you’re a nurse anesthetist looking for disability insurance, then you’re in the right place. We provide expert, objective advice on purchasing disability insurance online. We’re here to help. Contact us today or simply complete the quote form on the left and we’ll be in touch.
