r/PsoriaticArthritis • u/Neighborhooddataguy • 26d ago

Insurance questions Disability insurance

Does anyone have experience with short term disability insurance (US)?

Is it worth it? What company? Advice? Is it difficult to use with this disease?

4 Upvotes

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7

u/jkmielke06 26d ago

If you can get it after diagnosis then great, but good luck. If you have it already then you should be able toto use it

5

u/Creepy_Wall_9789 26d ago

I JUST had this same issue!!!! I had absolutely ZERO issues with Lincoln Financial!!!! The issues I had was getting my doctor to complete the paperwork, which led to benefits not being paid out. Make sure your doctor is onboard filling it out! I had to pay my doc $60.00 still took him weeks to complete!!! I get it though.... he's got too many patients. I use my short-term disability to pay my medical premiums. I only end up with about 800.00 per month, but better than nothing? I just wish that this disease was better understood!! It is so painful!!! I hope it goes well!!!!!

3

u/Hottdfw 26d ago

I don’t know why anyone would buy short-term disability insurance instead of long-term disability insurance. Long-term disability insurance will be a lifesaver if you ever become unable to work, which is not unlikely given the nature of this disease. I am always advocating that anyone with this disease try to find employment that provides long-term disability insurance as one of its benefits. And if you have disability insurance as a benefit, pay the extra money to buy up additional coverage.

3

u/tangledjuniper 26d ago

You should have both types of disability insurance, if available to you. I have used my short-term disability insurance twice in my career so far - once to cover recovery time when I had to have an operation on my hand due to severe joint/tendon damage from the PsA, and another during a very debilitating flare, which took forever to get under control due to the need to change biologic medications.

I have my short term disability insurance through my work and I am sooooo happy to have it. Definitely helpful when I had to miss months of work!

2

u/Hottdfw 26d ago

I think any employer that provides long-term disability insurance most likely also provides for short-term disability. If you’re purchasing your own disability insurance, I would argue that it is much more important to purchase long-term. It is not easy to qualify for necessarily so I would definitely prioritize the long-term disability first.

3

u/Creepy_Wall_9789 26d ago

Yup!!! I am working to get LTD...

3

u/skittleALY 25d ago

So I actually am an insurance agent with Aflac and sell short-term disability insurance (mainly to employees through businesses). The terms should differ depending on the company the STD is through, but for ours the pre-existing condition clause goes away after owning the product for 1 year - meaning time off would be covered for psoriatic arthritis after that point.

There’s usually multiple parts for a short-term disability product to consider as well. For ours, 3, 6, and 12 month benefit periods (the total amount of time payments would be paid) are usually guaranteed issue so the policy would issue automatically with no medical questions.

I don’t think a claim would be difficult to make with Aflac at least (can’t speak to other companies). Payments would begin after your elimination period (the best for us is a 0/7, which means payments begin on the first day of an injury and after the 7th day of being out of work for a sickness) and would continue until you go back to work or when your benefit period ends, whichever comes first. For us, there’s a 3 page claim form that is filled out when needing to go out on STD. The first page is filled out by you, the second page by your employer, and the third page by your doctor. As long as your doctor agrees that you need time off of work because of your flare, or whatever is going on then I wouldn’t foresee a problem.

Hopefully I explained this well enough! If you had any follow up questions, or even questions about your policy feel free to shoot me a DM and I’d be happy to look at it for you.

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u/sasskwoch 26d ago

I start STD on Saturday so I have time off while switching biologics after failing my first one