If you became sick with a debilitating disease or if you were temporarily disabled and couldn't work for two or three months, how would you financially sustain yourself and your family? Would you have enough in your savings account to supply you with sufficient finances while you recuperated? If the answer is no, you may want to consider short term disability insurance.
Short term disability insurance pays a percentage of your earned wages while you recover from any illness or other incapacitation. This short term disability insurance is, like the name indicates, provided for a short period of time. A typical short term disability policy provides you with a weekly portion of your salary. This portion can be anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of your salary for 13 to 26 weeks. Most short term disability insurance plans do have a salary cap. That means you cannot receive more than a maximum, specified benefit amount in one month's time, no matter what your regular wage is.
Once you become sick or disabled and are unable to work, the short term disability insurance policy kicks into gear. The short term disability insurance is usually paid within one to 14 days. The actual time for coverage to kick in depends on whether you have suffered an injury or illness. If you have suffered an injury, the short term disability insurance policy will pay immediately. If you have become ill, the insurance provider will need to make sure the illness is grave enough to be disabling. If the illness incapacitates you, you will receive your short term disability insurance money.
For example, if you were working on the roof of your house and fell off and injured yourself, you would receive short term disability insurance money immediately. However, if you became ill with a severe case of pneumonia, you would probably need to wait a few days before the policy kicked in. This is to make sure you don't claim short term disability insurance fraudulently. One important note about short term disability insurance; it does not include injuries that happen on the job. On-the-job injuries are covered by workman's compensation provided by your employer.
Short term disability insurance can also be retroactive. If, for example, you became ill with a cold that worsened to meningitis and you needed to be hospitalized for a few weeks, short term disability would retroactively pay back from the first day you were sick.
Some of the basic causes for claims under short term disability insurance include: pregnancy, both normal and complicated; injuries; and digestive or intestinal problems.
Short term disability insurance policies are available on a limited basis. If you have enough in your savings account to carry you through some kind of accident or illness, you probably don't need short term disability insurance. However, if you don't have much savings right now, short term disability insurance may not be a bad option.
You can purchase short term disability insurance through a number of different insurance providers; it can be very expensive though. The best thing to do is assess your financial savings situation and decide if you have enough funds to sustain you through a serious accident or illness.
John Ivie