More than 155 million U.S. workers are insured for a disability through the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. They receive this insurance coverage through their payroll taxes, or FICA taxes, as a part of the Social Security program. When those who experience a chronic health condition, injury or sudden medical crisis need support –…
By Bob Herum, Second Vice President, DI & GSI Sales, Ameritas I picture the millions of working Americans who are employed, receive benefits through their employers, and yet, go about their daily activities without realizing the potential financial risk to their way of life. Specifically, I’m thinking of their income and what insurance they may have…
By Carol Harnett, President, Council for Disability Awareness Note: An earlier version of this post appeared in Carol Harnett’s employee benefits column for Human Resource Executive. You don’t know me, but I’m someone people have come to trust when they want to have a conversation about employee benefits. I stand to neither gain nor lose anything…
By Ted Norwood, General Counsel and Director of Representation, Integrated Benefits, Inc. The United States Social Security Administration offers two programs—confusingly named Social Security Disability Income and Supplemental Security Income—aimed at providing or supplementing the income of people who are unable to work. SSDI (also called Title II benefits) provides disability coverage for individuals who…
By Larry Alkire, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, American Fidelity Assurance Company When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), the term—”pre-existing conditions”—became a household word. The ACA prevented health insurance carriers from denying you coverage, charging you more money, or refusing to pay for essential health benefits for any…
When most people consider disability, they picture something catastrophic happening—an ill-timed dive off a high rock, or a speeding car hurtling into theirs—and, for the most part assume it can never happen to them. That’s why human resources experts often find it challenging to convince their employees of the importance of disability insurance even though…
By Andrew Melnyk, Chief Economist and Vice President of Research, American Council of Life Insurers Last week, Fred Schott of The Council for Disability Awareness outlined an approach to answering the following question: how many working Americans have (or don’t have) some form of private disability coverage? It is an important question because, as we know, Social…
How many working Americans have private disability insurance coverage? This is a crucially important question for us at The Council for Disability Awareness. We would like to see all working Americans have some form of private disability coverage to protect their income when they’re out of work for an extended period of time because of…
In August, I wrote about how the non-occupational disabilities covered under salary continuation or disability insurance plans are more common than the occupational disabilities covered under workers’ compensation. I suggested your benefits team should be as focused on managing the costs of non-occ disabilities as your risk management team is on keeping WC costs in…
In last month’s blog post, I wrote about how the non-occupational disabilities covered under salary continuation or disability insurance plans are more common than the occupational disabilities covered under workers’ compensation. I suggested that your benefits team should be as focused on managing the costs of non-occ disabilities as your risk management team is on…
