FERS - Disability Insurance For Federal Government Employees

It is all too often that I hear Federal Government employees speaking of how great their benefits are because they work for the Federal Government. In some ways they are correct - the Federal government does provide high quality benefits for its employees and in most cases they are very well taken care of. In regard to their group Long-Term Disability insurance however, the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) program falls short of their elite reputation. 

Traditionally, group Disability insurance will cover 60% of a person's salary up to a maximum monthly benefit of $6,000 - $10,000. If the employer pays the premiums, benefits are received on a taxable basis and will be considered ordinary income. With benefits being taxable, even someone who has group coverage like this can experience a severe shortage of income if they become disabled. When 60% of your salary is provided on a taxable basis, it is the equivalence of having 45-50% coverage. I think it is fair to say that most people cannot survive on 45-50% of their regular income. 

The FERS program takes this shortage of coverage even further. It works very similarly in that 60% of your annual income is covered, but only for the first 12 months of a disability claim. After the first 12 months, your benefits will drop to 40% of your income. Once again, I believe it is fair to state that most people cannot survive on 40% of their regular income.

There are many details associated with the FERS Disability insurance program and as a Federal employee you should take the time to fully understand them. If you are serious about protecting your income and the future of your loved ones, you need to understand the coverage you have so that you can obtain an individual policy to cover the gap in your coverage. 

Your ability to work and earn an income is your most valuable financial asset. Most things you will need, desire and achieve in life revolve around your income you earn. As a Federal government employee, you have a gap in your Disability coverage and the only way to properly protect your income is by obtaining an individual policy to supplement your group coverage.

Government Help on Health Insurance - Lower Costs

Health insurance costs have been on the rise for a very long time now. Health insurance plans are getting out of reach for many middle class families to afford. The biggest problem with this increase is that salaries have not risen nearly as fast. The only way most families can afford rates like this is for both parents to work. However this just causes more visits to the doctor's office, because most of the times the kids have to be put in day care.

If you have kids in day care or know someone that has kids in day care, then you know they are much more likely to get sick than kids that are not in day care. The reason kids get sick more often in day care is that they are around a bunch of kids that they can catch an illness from. Many people have tried to develop new ways to lower health insurance costs, but they have not worked very well so far. I believe that the only way that health insurance costs can be lowered is with the help of the federal government.

I think the largest problem with health insurance costs today is the higher insurance costs that hospitals must pay for malpractice insurance. The burden of these larger costs is then placed on the patients that visit the hospital. The malpractice insurance costs are high because of the many frivolous lawsuits that are filed every year in America.

I believe that the federal government needs to get involved to place limits on the amount of money that can be won in these lawsuits, because this will slow down people who might want to sue for no reason. In turn this will allow malpractice insurance costs to be lowered, and also allow health insurance costs to go down as well. I do not think that these things will happen on there own, so I believe the only way health insurance costs will become more reasonable is if the federal government gets involved.