Should I get Supplemental Life Insurance
I (33f) recently started a new position, so naturally I am in a position to enroll in health insurance coverage, as well as the numerous voluntary benefits they offer. I was at my previous position for almost six years, and as I was in my twenties, married, but with no children and no significant debt when I started, I waived extra coverage at that time. During the course of my time in that position I’ve since had two children, and discovered between pregnancies that I have iGa Nephropathy, a chronic kidney disease. Though I am still in stage one of my disease, it progresses very differently from patient to patient and there are currently no proven ways to totally avoid eventually going into renal failure, at which point my options would be dialysis until hopefully getting a transplant (though there are some instances where the disease even develops in post-transplant patients). I am on some medications to prevent further damage to my kidneys and watch my intake of salt and animal proteins to do the same, but again, there are no guarantees.
Given that I have started a new position, I have the opportunity to sign up for supplemental life insurance, long-term disability, etc. without having to provide an evidence of insurability as I’m a new employee. I am trying to figure out if it’s a good choice. For context, my daughters are still pretty young (2yo and 4yo) and my income largely pays for them to be in daycare during the working days. My husband (35m) makes considerably more than I do (53K vs 130K) so I don’t believe the loss in my income would be entirely catastrophic for our family, but would definitely make things a little harder in the short time. I guess my concerns are less the financial implications, and more of a should I do this now since I do not need to provide a medical history, including a chronic illness at this time. I do not know how long I will be in this position, and I know not all plans are portable, so I wonder if there’s any real benefit?
in the first year of employment the benefit of the employer-provided life insurance is only 10K, but after two years of service jumps to 100K which would probably be enough to take care of any funeral expenses, pay for childcare and offset the cost of maintaining our home for at least a year or two given that my husband’s salary is sufficient and at least one of my children is relatively close to entering public school.
what say you?
