Disability Income Insurance
Health insurance that provides income payments to the insured wage earner when income is interrupted or terminated because of illness, sickness, or accident. Definitions under this insurance include:
- Total and Partial Disability reduction in benefits if the insured is found to be partially disabled instead of totally disabled.
- Amount of Benefits many policies stipulate that all sources of disability income cannot exceed 50% to 80% of the insured's earnings prior to the disability, subject to a maximum absolute dollar amount.
- Duration of Benefits length of time benefits will be paid. Some policies will pay benefits for one or two years, whereupon the insured must agree to be retrained for other work. Other policies pay benefits as long as the insured is unable to do the job for which he or she is suited by training, education, and experience (often up to age 65, when retirement programs take over). Some policies pay lifetime benefits.
- ELIMINATION PERIOD (Waiting Period) period beginning with the first day of disability, during which no payments are made to the insured. The longer this period, the lower the premiums.
- Physician's Care the insured must be regularly attended by a legally qualified physician because it is necessary to assess changes in severity of disability.
- PREEXISTING CONDITION if an insured has a preexisting injury, sickness, or illness, most policies will not pay income benefits either for the duration of the policy or until a period of time (usually from six months to one year) has elapsed.
- Recurrent Disability most policies will not pay income benefits to an insured who is experiencing a recurrent disability unless the recurrent disability is deemed a new disability. Some more progressive policies define a recurrent disability as a new disability if there has been a break of at least six months between the first disability and the current disability, and the insured has returned to work during that break.
- RESIDUAL DISABILITY many policies pay for the unused portion of the total disability period, limited to age 65.
Popular Insurance Terms
Theory developed in 1931 by H. W. Heinrich; states that an accident is only one of a series of factors, each of which depends on a previous factor in the following manner: accident causes ...
Provision in a property, liability, or health insurance policy stipulating the extent of coverage in the event that other insurance covers the same property. ...
Business owned by stockholders, as contrasted to a mutual insurance company, which is owned by its policyholders. Many major life insurers are mutual companies whereas some leading ...
Trust in which rights to make any changes therein are surrendered permanently by the grantor. The grantor uses this type of trust to transfer assets and any potential depreciation out of ...
Latin phrase meaning "without which not," signifying a legal rule in tort and negligence cases. Under this rule, a plaintiff trying to prove that an injury was a direct result of a ...
Difference in the amount of losses between the beginning and end of a time period. ...
Authority of states to tax the insurance companies they regulate. States levy income taxes, real and personal property taxes, and special levies, the most important of which is a premium ...
Coverage in health insurance by two or more policies for the same insured loss. In such a circumstance, each policy pays its proportionate share of the loss, or one policy becomes primary ...
Designation earned by passing 10 national examinations on subjects including mathematics of life and health insurance, actuarial science, insurance, accounting, finance, and employee ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.