Short answer
Not before you've done three things: find out where you matched, find out whether there's a GSI policy at that hospital, and find an insurance professional who can offer you both the GSI policy and a medically underwritten one. Applying for the wrong kind of policy first can cost you the better option.
A short clip from his webinar for residents and fellows, with captions.
Watch the full webinar from 33:56Do three things before you apply for anything
If there's one takeaway I'd want every graduating medical student to share with friends, it's this: don't apply for an individual disability insurance policy until you do three things.
- Find out where you matched. Most of you already know.
- Find out if there's a GSI policy available at that hospital. That's not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes only one or two insurance professionals have access to a GSI policy, and your GME office often can't tell you, because GSI policies are individual policies and aren't part of your hospital's benefits package.
- Find an insurance professional who can offer you the GSI policy and a medically underwritten policy, so you can weigh both and pick the one that makes sense for you.
Why the order matters
GSI applications have knockout questions, and one of them is usually whether you've applied for disability insurance with another company. If you have, that will likely jeopardize your eligibility. So if a GSI policy might be a good fit, get it before filling out any application that asks health questions.
Why get a policy during training at all
You know what your health is now. Nobody can tell you what it will be when training is done. A small policy now, with the ability to increase it later without health questions, locks in your insurability while you're healthy.
Where Jay covers this
Jump to each moment in his webinars.