In brief: Disability insurance is one of those things that’s being shifted off of employers and onto employees as businesses make cuts to trim costs.

The full story

Many employees who’ve never had to think about disability or death and dismemberment coverages are now being confronted with new policies that they’ll have to pay for if they want the coverages to continue.

The shift of benefits costs to employees in health insurance has been getting a lot of news coverage this year, but the quiet shifting of smaller benefits like disability coverage is also having a profound effect on workers around the nation.

Yet disability, which often gets ignored, is statistically very important. According to Mercer, people are far more likely to require short-term disability benefits than they are to have a house fire or die early. On average, Americans have a 30% chance of becoming disabled before retirement. Illness accounts for 90% of those claims.

Summing up

So look at your disability plan closely and weigh it against other things that may not be as pending.