Disability Insurance

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Having built a successful dental practice in the mountain community of Wrightwood, Calif., Mary Samida decided to protect her investment six years ago by taking out a disability-insurance policy.It was a good thing, because last December, increasing pain in her back caused by ruptured discs forced Ms. Samida out of her profession of 15 years."It was kind of a jolt," she said. "I'm having to sell my practice and immediately quit dentistry."The shock of ending her career so suddenly has been greatly eased by a disability-insurance policy that will pay Ms. Samida the equivalent of her monthly take-home pay every month for the rest of her life.

Jerry Bailey can look back on a Hall of Fame jockey career that featured 5,892 victories but also the searing memory of 17 fractures, including a broken back, jaw and collarbone, and several busted ribs. Yet Bailey considers himself lucky. He never sustained an injury that kept him off the track more than several months. And unlike many jockeys, he could afford disability insurance designed to fill the gap between what riders need after life-altering accidents and what they receive from racetrack policies.

Jerry Bailey can look back on a Hall of Fame jockey career that featured 5,892 victories but also the searing memory of 17 fractures, including a broken back, jaw and collarbone, and several busted ribs. Yet Bailey considers himself lucky. He never sustained an injury that kept him off the track more than several months. And unlike many jockeys, he could afford disability insurance designed to fill the gap between what riders need after life-altering accidents and what they receive from racetrack policies.

The government in Britain recently did something interesting. It asked everyone receiving an "incapacity benefit" -- a disability program slowly being phased out under new reforms -- to submit to a medical test to confirm they were too disabled to work. A third of recipients (878,000 people) didn't even bother and dropped out of the program rather than be examined. Of those tested, more than half (55 percent) were found fit for work, and a quarter were found fit for some work. But that's Britain, where there's a long tradition of gaming the dole.

Those of you paying attention have noticed that the Obama administration is actually doing what it promised: transforming America into a gigantic welfare state. And there are plenty of takers willing to cash in on it and "get mine. " Numbers don't lie. Forty percent of the population was on some form of public assistance when the president took office; today, that number stands at 55 percent. And fraud is rampant. "Exhibit A" is the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI)

Although being disabled can wreak more financial havoc than death, many workers have no disability insurance. Others have group insurance provided by their employers but are not familiar with their benefits.The Evening Sun wants to know whether you have disability insurance. If so, have you examined your policy so you know what to expect if you can't perform your job? Do you think employers should be required to offer group disability insurance to all their workers?To register your opinion, call SUNDIAL at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County)

Four years ago, Bob Page's car was hit head-on by a drunk driver. The drunk driver died. Page survived -- but suffered 15 broken bones and a bruised heart.For five months after his release from the hospital, Page had to use a wheelchair, depending on his parents, friends and employees to keep Replacements Ltd. going. His Greensboro, N.C., firm, which specializes in supplying customers with obsolete china, crystal and silver patterns, survived his personal disaster and has flourished.But not all small-business owners are as lucky as Page.

With American families pressured by the financial demands of the 1990s, no one likes to think about worst-case scenarios.Disability, however, is a difficult possibility worth pondering.The sale of disability insurance is on the rise these days, as more breadwinners decide it's better to be safe than sorry. Self-employed individuals are buying it, as are workers concerned about the restricted nature of disability coverage offered by their employers.Disability insurance is designed to pay monetary benefits when an illness or injury prevents the earning of an income.

I'M WATCHING a video, recorded in February 1997 for training purposes by Aetna U.S. Healthcare, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies. It should scare everyone who has company-paid health or disability insurance. You're at more risk than you think of not getting the care you need.Under current law, most patients in most states cannot sue their company plans for damages. Too bad if you die because your plan delayed or denied treatment. Too bad if you're refused disability benefits you should have had. The plan isn't liable.

No work, no money: Without a job, most of us would be in the poorhouse. Consider what would happen if an illness or accident prevented you from working permanently. How would you survive a lifetime without income? In the prime of youth, it's tough to think about disability insurance, which essentially replaces your wages if you become incapable of working. But at age 25, there's a 40 percent chance you'll become disabled before turning 65, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

When economic times are tough and the daily headlines remind us of our nation's deficit challenge, it's easy to use misinformation and anecdotes of abuse to demonize certain entitlement programs. Unfortunately, this has the unintended effect of stereotyping whole groups of people as lazy, unmotivated or, worse yet, committing intentional fraud. First, it was those living on the edge of poverty and relying on Medicaid for health care and other critical support services who took the hit. Now it's the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)

I may be influenced by a recent performance of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," but the first word that came to mind after reading Robert Ehrlich's recent column was "mendacity" ("Disability insurance entitlement explodes under Obama," March 3). His depiction of the Obama administration's goals and the current economic and policy environment is long on hyperbole, but noticeably short on facts. Contrary to his assertion, numbers can lie. Mr. Ehrlich begins his column with the oft-repeated canard that a majority of Americans are "on some form of public assistance" and, based on this dubious statistic, asserts that President Barack Obama wants to transform the U.S. into a European-style welfare state.

As someone who has made a career advocating on behalf of those that depend on Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income benefits, I was disheartened to read Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s column, "Disability insurance entitlement explodes under Obama" (March 3). The percentage increase in people on Social Security disability in recent years was expected, due to the aging Baby Boomers, half of whom are now reaching "high disability years. " Additionally, there has been an increase of women in the workforce in recent decades, women who are now eligible to draw on their own earnings record when they become disabled.

Those of you paying attention have noticed that the Obama administration is actually doing what it promised: transforming America into a gigantic welfare state. And there are plenty of takers willing to cash in on it and "get mine. " Numbers don't lie. Forty percent of the population was on some form of public assistance when the president took office; today, that number stands at 55 percent. And fraud is rampant. "Exhibit A" is the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI)

President Barack Obama is expected to soon nominate a new head of the Social Security Administration, replacing an incumbent appointed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, but the White House is mum on who should take the helm at the agency, which faces voluminous backlogs, potential insolvency and a raft of critics. Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue's six-year term expires Jan. 19. His successor must be confirmed by the Senate, in a process that Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, expects will take a couple of months from the hearings to a vote.

Richard Franklyn Kirchner, a World War II veteran and retired Social Security Administration official, died Jan. 7 of Lewy body dementia at the Harmony Hall assisted-living facility in Columbia. He was 86. Mr. Kirchner was born in New York City and raised there and in Monticello, N.Y., where his father recuperated from tuberculosis. After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City in 1943, he was drafted into the Army and served as a hospital corpsman in England and Europe.

Women who would like to buy a disability insurance policy still have time to act before new pricing models raise their costs."It's not too late, but better do it now," said Richard Misrok, a consultant with the Economic Growth Group, insurance industry advisers in New York.Saying that women have higher disability claim rates, insurers are gradually adopting new rate schedules that result in higher premiums for women than for men.Under the new rates, virtually all women buying a policy outside a group plan will see price increases ranging from 1 percent to a whopping 50 percent.

When I hear my fellow baby boomers gleefully talk about their elaborate plans to retire ASAP, head for the Tuscan hills, or otherwise continue their lifelong quest for "self-actualization," I have to bite my tongue. It's not that I'm all work and no play. But there's just something - make that lots of things - wrong, in general, with retiring at 55, 62 or even 65. I would go so far as to call it profoundly selfish and unpatriotic. Dropping out of the work force while still in one's prime means ending one's contributions to America's strength, mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future and leeching trillions of taxpayer dollars from the economy.

I read that this is the last year when proceeds from an IRA can be donated directly to a charity. But is this a good idea? Apparently no tax is owed on the money that goes to the charity, but you don't get a charitable deduction for the money you are giving to the charity. Which is preferable? No tax or a deduction? - Elaine Hopkins, Peoria, Ill. No tax is better for several reasons, said James Lange, a Pittsburgh attorney and accountant. The reader is referring to a provision available for tax years 2006 and 2007 that lets individual retirement account owners age 70 1/2 and older transfer up to $100,000 tax-free from their IRAs to eligible charities.