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Many will go through life insuring what is so important to them. I'm sure you can name some of them: Auto/Home/Boat/jewelry/computers/business/etc. At claim time you expect them to perform and get a replacement or to at least put you back to where you were. In order to have these things that you love, you have to produce an income. This is important because income is required in order to have everything else, including supporting your family. However people take it for granted. How will you maintain your family's current standard of living if you become too sick or hurt to work? If you do not protect your income, you could lose everything.
Statistically, sixty-two percent of bankruptcies in America are due to medical bankruptcies. Yet three-quarters of them had health insurance at the time of the onset of the illness*. So if they all had health insurance, was health insurance the root of the problem?
No.
Sure medical bills piled up beyond affordability. Most people will blame the health insurance for the cause. This is partly because we are too much in the habit of treating the symptom of the problem verse getting to the root of the problem.
If you had income coming in on a monthly basis so you can go for treatment, would that help manage the medical bills piling up? Of course it would. What is your plan to make sure you have income once you are too sick or hurt to work?
If you had a choice, would you leave work to focus on your health or would you continue to work while receiving treatment?
I think that choice is obvious.
Let's dig deeper... what if you are forced to take a leave of absence to focus on your health and your life depended on it? Would you continue to work anyways? Chances are you would take time off. No amount money is that important when your life is at stake. Or is it?
How are you going to pay for those bills, keep food on the table, clothes on the backs of your growing children and keep a roof over everyone's head?
This is a question that most will not address the topic, or even think about it. You cannot afford not to insure your ability to earn an income, and that is because your life does depends on it.
Insuring your ability to earn an income should be at the top of the list with other important insurance programs. It could be easily ignored because you are working now, but one day that will change. You are not immortal.
1 in 3 people will lose their ability to earn an income prior to the age of 65**. The chances are high enough that it will be you, one day. But since you do not feel any immediate pain from it, it is easier to put it off.
Your homeowner's policy won't pay you anything if you are too sick or hurt to work. Some will say "what about life insurance". Maybe. If you planned for it correctly, it could. Otherwise life insurance should be called death insurance. Typically, it can only be used once and you are not even the one receiving it.
Reviewing and implementing an insurance policy to protect your income is so important these days. It is so important, it should be the most important insurance program you should have. After all, your life could depend on it.
Butch Zemar
EliteBenefits.net
*2009 Harvard Study
**2007 LeClair Corportion