A major health insurance trade group organized a seminar Monday to show lawmakers' aides what a severe disability or the cost of long term care can do to a family's finances.[@@]
Representatives from the group, America's Health Insurance Plans, Washington, briefed congressional staffers on disability awareness survey results first released in November 2004, gave them a crash course on long term care insurance policy and introduced them to Brooke Ellison, a 26-year-old woman who has been paralyzed since just before she was 12, when a car struck her while she was returning from school.
The survey, conducted by researchers from Ayres, McHenry and Associates, Alexandria, Va., found that 58% of the adults who responded said they were covered by disability insurance and that 59% believed that workers' compensation covered a high percentage of disability claims.
In reality, only 35% of American workers have disability coverage, and only 10% of workers with disabilities qualify for workers' comp.
