Not all registered nurses are covered by their hospital’s group plan. Disability insurance for registered nurses is essential, as it is for most medium to high-income workers. If you’re a registered nurse and you’re considering purchasing disability insurance, read on to learn more.
What to Expect – Disability Insurance for Registered Nurses
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.
The average age for a registered nurse in the United States is 43 years old. The average income is a little over $71,000 annually. The occupation is 87% female and, logically, health varies from person to person.
What’s interesting is that, unlike many other professions, disability insurance for registered nurses can be difficult to purchase for several reasons.
First, because the population is largely made up of women, these policies can be expensive (women pay substantially more for disability insurance than men). Couple that with the average earnings of a registered nurse, and for many the cost can be prohibitive.
Second, the occupation class assigned by the disability insurance companies can vary based on your duties.
A floor nurse is likely to have a lower (and thus more expensive) occupation class than an RN who works in an administrative role.
Disability insurance for RNs needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, as there is no one-size-fits-all.
For ExampleDisability insurance for registered nurses who are female, age 43, which covers $3,000 per month in earnings to age 65, is going to cost different amounts depending on your duties. For a registered nurse who works in a supervisory or administrative role, not providing primary care, this policy would cost about $218 per month. For a floor nurse, this same policy would be $288 per month, or 32% more.
Keep in mind that the examples above are for own-occupation policies with substantial residual benefits. We are able to reduce these premiums by eliminating certain features of the policy. Having a basic disability insurance policy is still preferable to having none.
What to Look For
When looking for a disability insurance policy, there aren’t a lot of variables that you can control. Your occupation, gender, age and health all have an effect on the pricing of your policy, but none of these characteristics are easily changed.
What we can control is the benefit amount and the features of the policy. We can also control the carrier that we choose to apply with, since pricing can vary from company to company.
One area to focus on, especially if you’re a woman, is to consider purchasing a policy with a few of your coworkers.
If you’re looking for disability insurance for registered nurses, that likely means that you don’t have group coverage offered through your employer. And if you don’t have group coverage available, the chances are that your coworkers don’t have coverage either.
If you purchase your policy with other people from your work, you could be eligible for substantial discounts (10%–30%) AND receive unisex pricing. As mentioned before, this is especially important if you’re female.
Common employer or multi-life discounts vary by insurance carriers, but several begin offering these discounts at 3 lives or more. That means that, if you can find two other people to purchase a policy with you, those big premium discounts will kick in right away.
Having these discounts can be the difference between purchasing meaningful coverage or not.
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 registered nurses 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 registered nurse 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.
