Insurance and the future

[Paradox]

Hi all. I have not been diagnosed with ALS, however my suspicion is high based on the symptoms. I am a physician, but not a neurologist, and do not believe I am being paranoid. I can only hope I am wrong. I am having an EMG in two weeks, recommended by a neurologist without my asking for it. I respectfully ask those who have ALS if they recommend getting long term diability insurance now, which is not offered to those who have a diagnosis of ALS, and which I can always cancel later if I am, hopefully, wrong. I am not aware of what insurance will provide for the future.

 

[TRACY22]

sure

answer truthfully and if they rejfct you, so what

 

[Al]

I'd sure try for it. If they later found out about the timing of your diagnosed you can always plead ignorance. AL. I'm sure the lawyers in the group will have something to say but unless you have a diagnosed I'd try to sign up.

 

[TRACY22]

just

just dont sound to excited but get copies

 

[Pearl]

The way I see it, absolutely! Do this ASAP. So far, you have not been diagnoised, and even it it comes back negative, given your current symptoms who is to say that you won't need that LTD insurance for some other illness.

Actually, we all (everyone, not just ALS patients) should have it.

 

[MtPockets]

Insurance companies.. BOO Hisss

Paradox, welcome to the forum. Glad to have another doctor on here, I promise we won't bug you with internet diagnosis.

I had long term disability insurance when I was injured in an airplane accident 18-19 years ago and was forced to retire, the ALS was just DX may 11, 2006. The disability insurance was a blessing, but did not cover anywhere near my normal salary, I had to rely on my savings. It would be good to sit down with your local agent and see what different kinds of insurance are offered.

My own Doctor developed leukemia and had to quit his practice. It was devastating as he was only 40 years old at the time. I would investigate all kinds of coverage available and think of your long term care as well. When ALS gets in the last stages there are a lot of costs involved that many don't think about, much less providing for your family. As long as you have not been diagnosed YET you should be eligible to at least apply for the coverage. I say Go for it.

I also had a large term life insurance policy for years before I ever came up with this diagnosed. It will help my family after I am gone, and that is very important to me.

I'm in Gulfport, Mississippi, where we have seen unbelievable things pulled by the insurance companies to keep from paying out on policies from the hurricane Katrina damage. They have even had engineering firms falsify damage reports to say people sustained no wind damage when the people had videos of their houses blowing away before the storm surge ever hit the coast. Yet they are in court now fighting thousands of cases. The insurance companies are being sued, the engineering firms, the adjusters, everyone involved from the insurance company side of the matter. One of the main people they tried to not pay is a Senator and he is in court as we speak. It is ridiculous the lengths they will go to to try not to pay claims after they have taken payments on policies for sometiimes 40 years.

They made Billions of dollars in profits for the past few years and now are refusing to pay for anything and everything they can get away with. So you go for it. All they can say is no. At least you will have tried. I would never lie, because later they can deny your claim, but if they don't ask don't tell. (Sounds like the military)

God Bless
Capt. AL

 

[LeoGreene]

disability

Definitely get disability insurance. Shop around, too. There are companies that cater to professionals. And read the fine print. Some policies offer to provide higher percentage of your income. There's a website that offers quotes from several companies.
www.protectyourincome.com
But check with your agent and/or an attorney before you buy.

 

[Lindoglvr]

Disability insurance is good for anyone that relies on an income, regardless of whether they might be diagnosed with ALS or not. I'm so glad I've had mine with my job, as during my workup for my neuro problems, I was sent to a rheumatologist that then did a CT of my abdomen, chest and pelvis, and I was found to have an adnexal mass. Thankfully it was benign, but I had surgery and was out of work for six weeks. Most policies only pay 50% of a salary for up to six months on short term...and that's after 2 weeks off (so you'll always have 2 weeks with no pay) and most companies will require a person to use all their PTO time before they can use the disability. Long term disability covers about 60% after the short term wears off, for I think about 2 years or so...which is about the time it takes to get SSI if going for permanent disability.

Long term care insurance is another thing to look in to as for a therapist that has worked in long term care, it doesn't take long to rack up bills there. People have lost their homes when a loved one has been in them.

Since I"m not diagnosed with anything yet, but am fearing the worst, I'll also be applying for some term and permanent life insurance.

I don't want to leave any of my family members with my finances. I lost a second cousin to lung cancer 2 years ago. My sister took care of him during his last months, and everyone was hounding her for money for all his bills etc. Anyone you owe to will go after any living relative to pay the costs.

Good luck.

Linda

 

[marlo]

Hi all. I have not been diagnosed with ALS, however my suspicion is high based on the symptoms. I am a physician, but not a neurologist, and do not believe I am being paranoid. I can only hope I am wrong. I am having an EMG in two weeks, recommended by a neurologist without my asking for it. I respectfully ask those who have ALS if they recommend getting long term diability insurance now, which is not offered to those who have a diagnosis of ALS, and which I can always cancel later if I am, hopefully, wrong. I am not aware of what insurance will provide for the future.

Hello Paradox.

Like the other ones on here ,, i certainly advise getting the insurance NOW while you can. I was put on short term disability at my place of work. While the doctors figured out what was wrong with me. It all went very fast for me. After the diagnosis, they had me apply for Social Security Disability,, which worked with my work places ,,, Long Term Disability Plan,, to determine how much they were going to pay me. I had to be off work for 6 months to qualify for it. I read some of the other "Posts" on here that said their the long term only lasts 2 years. Mine will pay me for up to 5 years,, "If i break down fast enough". So it's a toss up as to what to pray for. If i'm tooo healthy,, i lose my livily hood and i've already lost my job,, cause the neuro's couldn't release me to go back to work after the 6 months. And Social Security only pays me 490.00 a month. So i'm not sure how i will make ends meet on that amount of money. But if i break down fast enough,, my long term disability will pay me up to 5 years.
I also had life insurance ,, so i made sure i keep that policy good. Cause i'm sure , any bills i leave behind,, will fall on my kids to pay. Hope this is somewhat helpful

Love and Prayers
Marlo

 

[Mike27]

Paradox,
I'm joining the consensus here and saying if you can get LTD then definitely get it.
It's not just me, but my family would be screwed if I didn't get it with my military pension.
Hope and pray it works out for you and you won't need it!

Cheers!

 

[TBear]

Hi Doc:
I am also going to jump on the band wagon for LTD insurance. In our case it was incumbant on the neurologist to support the claim, which he did. Dates and times will become important. You can cancel later, but it's not a bad idea to have anyway... I know that it was a real benefit to us.

Mike... nice to see you back... and hope you are holding your own!

CHeers

T.

 

[notgoingtotell]

Insurance lawyer weighing in

Paradox, all I can say is answer the questions truthfully. If you make a claim within 2 years (typical incontestability period) the insurer can pull your medical records and see if you did not answer truthfully. In fact, some insurers will pull your records anyway, and if they see an undiagnosed condition they will decline you.

A typical disability (or health) application will ask you about signs and symptoms, not just diagnosed conditions.

I need to warn you, too: Your post may be found. I've found chat room or other internet posts by claimants that have been helpful to my position, and harmful to the plaintiff's position.

However, all is not lost. I don't know your employment situation, but you may be eligible for GROUP disability or long term care through your employer. There is often no underwriting of GROUP insurance.

Please feel free to post any questions; I will answer to the best of my ability.

 

[rickmcmahan]

Juast about one year ago, I applied for the long term care insurance. At that time the nerologist had diagnosed me as having had a mini stroke, but he could not tell me when It occured and I had no symptioms of it happening. The only symptioms I had that sent me to the doctor was that I had four words I would have a problems saying at times. I had a complete series of tests, MRI and brain dye tests run. They found absolutly nothing wrong with me. Nothing. But they did find a very small area of my brain on the left side that they did say was damaged from a mini stroke. Guess what? The insurance company turned me down due to the brain area of small damage! I had not been diagnosed as having ALS at that time. So a mini stroke kept me from getting long term care insrance. To me, that did not make any sense. Now if I had been in bad health or on a lot of medication I could understand. But I was in perfect health on no medication and had never had any problems all of my life. I am 57 years old now. So I was very upset that the company would not write me the coverage I needed. Isn't that sad for a healthy person (at the time of the application)
Hope you get your coverage soon. You may need it. Rick