cessnaflyr

Hey all,

Apologies is this has been asked before, I couldn’t find anything here. I’m starting training soon and just got an email about signing up for SAPA loss of medical insurance. Is this something I should do? Do most pilots at SKW pay for this? The email makes it sound pretty good and I don’t mind paying ~$50/month for the benefits if it is a solid program.

Thanks!

trip

That's kind of a tough question to answer as it's complicated. It's Harvey Watt insurance, pretty industry standard, do you think you need insurance? SKW has short term that you can buy and automatic long term they pay for that goes out to two years I think. Everyone has a different take on this. HW kicks in after SKW long term ends. If you end up needing it then you'll be glad you paid into it, if your moving on after two years? It's a personal decision.

cessnaflyr

Thanks, I’ll do some more research on it. The email said I only have 60 days to enroll so I felt pressured to do something about it. Where can I learn more about SKW’s insurance? My skywestonline doesn’t have much on there yet since I haven’t started training. I’m assuming I’ll just have to wait a bit still?

rickair7777

If you're young, you probably don't need it. In that case if you have a typical disqualifying condition, you'll still be able to work a regular job, and will probably not want to retire for good at 60% of regional pay. IIRC, any outside work and some non-work income will offset the loss of License (medical) insurance, so it's not like you can just get another job to supplement the insurance payment.

If you're really risk averse, it make sense... if you get seriously disabled such that you can't work at all, it would be better than social security/state disability.

Or you could use it to retrain for another career.

It makes more sense if you're older... might not want to start over at 55 or 60.

trip

https://www.harveywatt.com/airlinesu...west-airlines/

skblu

Along the lines of what RickAir mentioned, any income you earn takes away from what Harvey Watt would pay. They are also really good at arguing that certain conditions are either not permanent or are otherwise disqualified from receiving insurance payouts. If you end up thinking it makes sense for you just be sure to read the fine print.

Round Luggage

The fringe benefit is they will help you get your medical back which is what most pilots want more than living on a fixed income.

AirBear

I've been drawing benefits from a LOM plan for almost 2 years now. It worked for me because I was older when I pulled the medical ripcord. I think my plan is typical in that you're capped at 20% income of your final annual average earnings. So for simple math if you made $100K your last year you can only earn $20K from a non-flying job before the insurance starts reducing your benefit. On my plan it's a 84% reduction for every dollar earned over 20%. So really not worth it. That formula is something you need to look at. In my case I strongly suspected I'd need the plan based on my family history and I was correct. It's been a life saver along with having paid off all my debt before I went out.

Also, if you're over 50 when you lose your medical you can argue for SS Total Disability based on you're too old to learn a new career field.

cessnaflyr

Thanks for the input everyone!