Disability Insurance Articles

How Accident Statistics Play A Role In Disability Insurance Coverage

2010-08-17

If you become hurt at home or work how will you still pay for your bills and expenses? This can be done through the use of disability insurance coverage. It provides income to people who are no longer able to work due to an accident or illness. How do insurance companies determine whether or not you can be covered? They use accident statistics provided by the government annually to make their decision.

If you are employed, you might purchase short term or long term disability insurance coverage through your job. Your premium and information is pooled with other workers to provide less risk. If you are self-employed then the risk will be much higher as you are not pooled with anyone else.

The type of work that you do will be an important factor in your disability insurance coverage. If you are in a high risk job as determined by accident statistics you may not qualify for disability insurance. The insurance companies are able to look at previous years of statistics to determine who was injured, why they were hurt, how long they were disabled or out of work, their age at the time the incident occurred and where it happened. These probabilities are not an exact science, but they have a high accuracy rate to determine injuries and death.

If you have an office job with no apparent risk you may still be denied coverage. Many people do not realize that certain extracurricular activities or hobbies can create higher premiums or non-coverage by the insurance company. You may decide to give up these activities to get coverage.

If you have a pre-existing illness prior to applying for disability insurance coverage this can affect your payment amount. If it is determined that your illness may eventually lead to a non-working status then you may not get coverage. Another reason for insurance denial is if you were ill in the past and there is a chance it may reoccur which will make you unable to work.

Accidents can happen anywhere. Disability insurance is your hedge against this scenario. You need to ensure that should anything happen you can still maintain your standard of living in case you are no longer able to work. However, insurance companies do use accident statistics from the population on a local, state and national level to determine who might get hurt or disabled. They can use these statistics to figure out if it will occur due to a high risk job, hobby, or random car accident due to the area you live and work.