“THE GAME” is History for 2018 and Buckeye Nation faces an Uncertain Future
Oh, Buckeye Fans have had a great run of it lately! Good luck! Excellent talent! Extremely Hard Work! The Winningest Coach, Urban Meyer, of all time for this particular game! It all adds up to a massive amount of excitement once a year as The Ohio State University Buckeyes take on The University of Michigan Wolverines! This year, the epic battle took place in Columbus, Ohio, and my wife and I got to attend the game.
I received a text in the middle of the first quarter of the game this year, “Help me. I need disability insurance. 🙂” From a phone number I do not have in my contacts.
Verizon and AT&T LTE Cellular systems are completely overloaded during most Ohio State home games. For “The Game” you can forget real-time communications. I can’t call this person, because the call will likely not go through, and if it does? I’ll lose the call within 10–15 seconds. I text back, “Absolutely, call/text you later this evening.” About 30 minutes later it says, ‘Delivered.’ Yeah, technology.
I’m looking out at that crowd of over 100,000 people. Pulsing with energy! Literally pulsing! Looks like a heartbeat where you can see the individual muscle fibers. O-H-I-O chants ring the Horseshoe Stadium. The human-sound shakes the very concrete below and around me on each 3rd down!
And… I’m thinking about my next client. Are they a Resident Physician graduating in 2019? Are they an Attending Physician who just realized their crappy group disability insurance policy is really crappy? Are they a doctor or dentist who just missed being in a horrific car crash by a fraction of a second? Are they changing jobs and read a post on reviewing your Individual Disability Insurance when you change jobs in Medicine? — A must do! Are they in the hospital filled with all the boundless joy of being a new father and simultaneously experiencing the sheer weight of real responsibility for another brand new human being? Did their colleague just lose the use of his left hand forever and has been permanently disabled from clinical medicine at age 39?
The crowd howls around me. I cheer on and off. I love the game of football but my wife is an insane Fan of the Buckeyes! Insane, I tell you. I look like an old Football player and she sounds like seasoned Football commentator! The end of the second quarter hits and our favorite part of the game is about to happen where the bands play. There is something really special about seeing the band play live. The crowd is not together during this time and many leave to go hunt for a bathroom or food stand.
It’s said that as many as 25–30% of the Stadium will leave their seats during halftime. That’s about your chances of becoming disabled during your medical career; 1 in 3. Like the Stadium mass of humans, statistically, some will be gone a few minutes, some will miss the start of the thirst quarter, but be back… and a few will be leaving the game for whatever reason (maybe they are on-call for the hospital and that baby has decided that right now it's a good time to be born! A true Buckeye Fan will not miss the Michigan game even if they are in utero!
One in Three doctors will have a disability during their career, most will be out for about a year, some will be out for one to seven years, and a a few like me, will be out permanently. Their careers are over. I lost the good use of my left hand forever and have been permanently disabled from clinical medicine since age 39. Yes, it sucks and it still hurts some days when I talk to doctors about what they are doing clinically.
The bands play wonderfully and then, the third quarter starts up. I look down upon the field where there are at least ten players that will be looking to be drafted to the NFL this coming Spring. They have studied and played football for more hours than can be counted. They have eaten right, slept right, and exercised more than most people do in a lifetime over about 10–12 years. They have become simply awesome! JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR I KNOW!!! Simply awesome human beings.
College, Medical School, Residency, missed meals, missed nights of sleep, studying, studying and more studying when everyone else you knew stopped studying and went to work in their 20's… You kept going, all the way to becoming an Attending Physician or Dentist.
What do you think those kids on that field would give to ‘protect’ 2/3rds of their NFL income with an insurance policy? That would be incredible. They can’t, for the most part. Sure, once they are in the NFL, they can get some insurance, but not like a doctor. Not like what you can do for yourself. An NFL career is 3.5 years, on average. A average physician’s career is 35 years.
In the 4th quarter, a star player is down. They have to call for the cart to take him off. He waves at the team, his fans, the stadium. The stadium erupts in support. Will he recover to make the combine? Did his entire future just change?
A text vibrates through my phone, “Ok. Talk to you then.🙂” Same number. Number unknown. I follow up. The process of educating another doctor, PGY-2, in this case, on properly protecting their income has begun.
Ten days later, Urban Meyer announced that he is finished with being the Head Football Coach at Ohio State University after the Rose Bowl in January 2019. He is 54 years old and simply can no longer perform the substantial and material duties of his occupation… disabled from his career at age 54. Medically disabled. Now, Coach Meyer has money and much to look forward to in his life… but what if it was you, at the top of your game in the clinical practice of medicine, age 54, and it is over… you can no longer perform the substantial and material duties of your occupation.
Having the resources to live again after losing a career you love is absolutely priceless! Yet, it is not the 54 year-old that gets to make that decision. Often, it is that 29 year-old resident who decided to properly protect their entire career income, their greatest asset, with proper individual disability income 25 years earlier. That is who made that decision. Someone exactly like the resident texting me during that football game, they found their ‘why’ and now they wanted to protect their physician income correctly, the first time.
~Chris
Dr. Christopher Yerington
Columbus, Ohio
Link: https://www.doximity.com/pub/christopher-yerington-md
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisyerington
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 and educates medical groups and residency programs about the importance of great disability insurance. Having attended law and business schools, Chris is a perpetual student, currently working on his financial certifications.