CONSIDER Every 7 seconds someone is disabled by an accident. Yet it takes a medical dictionary 2” thick to list all the illnesses that can cause a disability.
CONSIDER 64% of wage earners believe they have a 2% or less chance of being disabled for 3 months or more during their working career, according to the Council for Disability Awareness, Disability Divide Consumer Disability Awareness Study, 2010.
More than 1 in 4 of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they retire.
(Source: Social Security Administration, Fact Sheet, Feb. 7, 2013)
In fact, 1 in 8 workers will become disabled for 5 years or more during their working careers.
(Source: Commissioners Disability Insurance Tables A and C, assuming equal weights by gender and occupation, and statistics, ssa.gov.)
The risk increases dramatically with age! People 50 or older account for 59 percent of disability claims.
CONSIDER You can’t control the odds against a disability happening. However, you can control the consequences
should life throw you a curveball!
CONSIDER 48% of mortgage foreclosures are due to disability with only 3% due to death. (Source: Housing & Home Finance Agency of the U.S. Government)
CONSIDER At no age is the risk of death greater than the risk of becoming disabled for 90 days. Why? Significant advances in medicine have enabled doctors to keep people alive, particularly since many of yesterday’s fatal illnesses are only disabling today. Simply put, mortality is down, and morbidity is up. Learn more in “Death vs. Disability – The Inconvenient Truth”.
CONSIDER The American Journal of Medicine reports that every 90 seconds someone files for bankruptcy in the wake of a serious illness. In fact, more than 50% of all personal bankruptcies have underlying, unpaid medical expenses.
CONSIDER Many people associate serious disabilities with car or freak accidents, believing they will end up in a wheelchair. Such disabilities do happen, but are actually very rare. The reality is 90% of long-term disabilities are caused by illnesses, not injuries, according to the 2013 Council for Disability Awareness long-term disability claims review.
There are generally four types of scenarios that can cause disability claims:
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Happy Times: Starting a family and having a new baby is the most common cause of short-term disability claims.
Inconvenient Times: Injuries while playing sports. Straining your back or having laparoscopic knee surgery.
Challenging Times: Life taking its toll — back surgery and dealing with depression, anxiety or other mental disorders.
Scary Times: Major accidents or life-changing diagnoses — such as diabetes, heart, cancer or stroke-related illnesses.
Inconvenient, challenging and scary times are the most common causes of long-term disability claims.
Life without your income?
