I don’t consider myself to be an idiot in most cases, but when I am approached about something which will help my family and me in cases of emergencies, I guess I am very gullible. My story begins when I was teaching school and often times insurance agents would require a portion of our time after school had ended for the day. This is what happened on this particular day. After my students had gone home, I made my way to the library to hear the insurance agent’s story.

The agent was selling long term disability insurance. I was interested and I had already purchased short term disability insurance. I hoped to never use either policy, but you never know, so I signed up for it and the payments began to be debited from my monthly check.

I have heart issues and I needed a defibrillator, so in October 2003, I received my first implant. To make a short story long, by March of 2004 I left my teaching position and went out on disability. I received my short term and my long term disability insurance. The short term disability was so pleasant and was never a heartache to receive. The long term disability insurance was another headache altogether.

Some months I would receive a check from the long term and other months, I would receive a letter explaining how they had overpaid me, so they would be subtracting the amount from the amount I should have received. It was a very confusing, frustrating, and financially unstable time for my family and me because the insurance was something we just couldn’t count on.

After a time, the insurance company began to send me letters stating that when I received my social security disability, I would be required to pay them back for the amount they had given me. I didn’t believe this because the insurance agent who came to the school to sell it, never once mentioned this small bit of information. And wasn’t insurance for emergency situations and I had never heard of paying back insurance because I had been paying premiums? This is where the gullible part comes in.

After I received my social security disability, I began to be hounded by the insurance company and their lawyers. They wanted their $19,000 and some odd dollars and they wanted it right then. At the time, the insurance company was not my priority because I had lots of doctor, hospital, and medicinal bills that needed to be taken care of first. I even approached my congressmen and my governor to help me with this issue.

Leaving my career and having to go on disability was not my choice. It was something I had to do to stay alive. The lawyers call my home and threaten my livelihood because they know they can get away with it. I am going to pay the insurance company back because they have threatened to ruin my credit and probably worse if I don’t, but I did manage to get the price down by 50 percent.

My advice to anyone who is contemplating long term disability insurance, don’t get it or if you do, please ask questions and make sure you are aware you will be required to pay the money back to the agency. If the papers I signed for the insurance really stated I would need to pay the money back, I can only say that I carelessly overlooked this most important information. I have learned a valuable lesson and I will never be so careless again. Please understand the money you will receive is really not insurance, it’s a loan.