Most Medical Students do Not Know they can Acquire Individual Disability Insurance Once they Match
I have always loved Math, and Science, but Math has a purity to it. The Match is stressful for soon-to-be-physicians but the Math is straightforward.
The math on Disability Insurance is not-so-straightforward. I will have been disabled from the clinical practice of medicine for 10 years on October 15, 2019. Yes, I remember my last operative day clearly. I loved my job. In that time, I have told my story hundreds, perhaps over one-thousand times to young doctors, friends and colleagues. A few years ago, my story led to a beginning; A new career; educating and advocating for medical professionals to have great independent disability insurance.
After working with clients for years, I fundamentally believe that financial safety and security reduces anxiety, stress and burnout in practicing physicians. That may seem obvious and mathematically simple but I assure you the emotional journey is difficult. We are humans, not mathematics. Like the Match, the math on financial safety and security is straightforward, but every decision you have made to achieve the best outcome, like the Match, is ultimately emotionally. I remember my friends in medical school on Match Day. Joy. Tears. Pain. Anger, even. A choice made by math.
Minus the Joy... and that is what going on disability feels like... a choice made by Life. Unfair. While I can't be a clinical cardiac anesthesiologist because I've permanently lost the good use of my left hand, what I can do is help those medical professionals that follow to do a better job of financial awareness, preparedness and understanding. Working one-on-one doctor-to-doctor, I advocate through education, advising doctors about proper income protection, financial literacy and work-life balance.
I wish every graduating medical student the best of luck on Match Day!
~Chris
Dr. Christopher Yerington
Columbus, Ohio
Bio: Retired from clinical anesthesiology by a disability in 2010, Dr. Yerington has turned his love of teaching and service to others to his family, medical colleagues and community. He speaks, writes and educates medical groups and residency programs about the importance of great disability and life insurance, basic physician-financial literacy and work-life balance. Chris also consoles and counsels young doctors on stress, burnout and physician-suicide. Having attended law and business schools, Chris is a perpetual student of human life, a scientist and an optimistic futurist at heart.