Understanding The Risk Of Disability

Disability is a risk that most Americans still don't consider or understand. In insurance language, short-term disability (STD) is two years and under, while Long-Term Disability (LTD) is beyond two years to permanent. Unlike pre-mature death (unpleasant but important topics), a result of disability is that a person's expenses increase while their income stops.
More than 500,000 individuals received long term disability insurance payments from private companies in 2006 according to the Council for Disability Awareness. Those payments totaled $7.2 billion, an increase of about 7% from 2005. This does not include the $80 billion paid by the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI) to 6.8 million people. SSDI payments have increased 105% since 1996.
The major misconception is that Social Security will be the safety net in case of disability. In fact, 2006 statistics show that only 39% of the 2.1 million workers who filed for SSDI benefits received approval. The following are some other facts regarding disability and a helpful website to learn more.

• Disability rate among women is growing faster than men.
• Women now account for 47% of all SSDI receiptants.
• Musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 25% of all LTD causes followed by Cancer and Stroke.
• Only 8% of new LTD claims were accident/injury related.

www.disabilitycanhappen.org