Contingencies Online - March/April 2010

Communicating the Risk of Long-Term Disability continued

Cancer,;heart;disease,;and;diabetes;are;the;highest-ranking;causes;of;disability;not;arising;out;of;a;job.

buyer make an appropriate decision concerning his or her own risk of disability.

There’s a common misconception that unusual and fairly rare accidents create most of the disabilities that remove a person from the workforce. However, illness is the main cause of nonoccupational long-term disability. Cancer, heart disease, and diabetes are the highest-ranking causes of disability not arising out of a job.

According to data recently compiled by the Council for Disability Awareness, 1 in 7 workers will experience a period of disability lasting five years or more. This is a profoundly more detailed combination of probability and severity data than was presented in the past. But more is needed, including a further breakdown of the incidence of nonoccupational disability based on duration and on the probability associated with that duration. Data based on six-month intervals up to five years of disability would paint a substantially better picture of disability risk in the working years.

Creating Social Context

Enhanced valid and reliable data concerning long-term disability will not by itself lead to better financing of the risk through insurance. The growing field of risk communications argues that social context must be recognized in gauging how individuals hear and understand risk and in identifying what drives them to take concrete action, such as buying insurance.

Social context is a multidimensional concept and has no single accepted definition. Its elements might include personal relationships, whether new or long-standing (such as what exists between an insurance agent and his or her customer), and the degree of trust for the source of the disability statistics. How the data are shared might be a factor, whether in a face-to-face discussion or through company sales materials. Even the best

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