No, no, no, no. Not what you get when you don't use condoms like the public health wonks tell you to. I'm talking short term disability insurance.
It's open enrollment time at work, and being as I'm enrolled in short term disability already, I got a separate notice that they're changing plans. My weekly cost will being increasing from $2.29 to $10.72. Over eight bucks a week? I guess there goes my awesome three percent salary increase. Ha!
I'm tempted to say screw the short term disability insurance, having never used it and having lots of ET banked, even with cash-in, plus saved sick time from years ago when they switched to ET that I have never been been able to use. (The rules are you have to use three consecutive days of ET before you can dip into those sick days, and I have never ever taken four sick days off in a row. I don't think I've ever taken two, actually.) I think I have over three months of full pay I could take--probably more since you keep accruing ET while using ET.
On the other hand, reading the literature they sent me, right now, being switched from one plan to the other, I will be protected from the new plan's "pre-existing conditions" limitation. If I don't elect it this year and I wanted to get it again in the future, I might not be covered for disabilities related to, say, the War with My Uterus, or the Crazee. And you never know when I might need a long stay in an institution, n'est pas?
So perhaps I ought to just suck it up and spend $557.44 for something I am probably never going to use.
Insurance is a fucking scam.
xoxo
3 comments:
Yes, insurance is the biggest scam there is--bigger than banks and compound interest.
"Pre-existing condition" is indeed the concern. However, another question is how many days worth of STD do you get before LTD kicks in, and how much income is that after all your sick time is used up? It may still be that you're ahead without it.
Possible good news for you might be that if you get a really good dose of the crazee, or if War With My Uterus goes nuclear, you'd be onto LTD and even permanent disability to a point where STD isn't wouldn't be relevant.
Of course, sometimes there's an asterisk with LTD that you have to have STD in order to qualify, so check that out too. But you're really only talking about a finite bit of income, to be offset by the $557.44 you're paying to keep it. Often "self insurance" (i.e. not carrying any) is the smart choice. (For example, I have no comprehensive insurance on my Chyrsler, because that would cost a grand a year, and the car's only worth two, so after two years of crusing without it, I'm ahead and I just have to be ready to write a check for a couple grand to get a new car in case I wreck my old one. (If someone else wrecks it, they're insurance would cover me, so it's only if I'm reckless/not wreckless (hehehe) that it's a problem).
Just don't forget to be a good little insurance subversive and put that cushion of insurance savings into your savings account every year, instead of spending it! Once you've built up your "self insurance" pool, it's there to cover you should the proverbial "bad things" happen. (My car kitty is getting into "another covertible" range these days).
If you can pool your time off, I've never gotten why you need std, except to make the insurance company richer.
You're betting that you'll become disabled but not need LTD. They're betting that you won't. If you become disabled, you lose. If you don't, you lose $577.44 a year.
Foxwoods has better deals.
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