Insurance
Physician disability insurance in Canada: how much and what kind
What own-occupation means, how much coverage an Ontario physician needs, why guaranteed premiums matter, and where association coverage stops.
6 min read
Physicians
Residents and new attendings
The first three years decide how the next thirty start.
If this is you
- Your line of credit, your first real billing month and your first instalment notice all land in the same year.
- You can enrol in OPIP without medical evidence within 90 days of your initial offer, and that window closes quietly.
- Everyone tells you to incorporate. Nobody asks how much you would actually keep in the corporation.
What changes after a review
- An order for the line of credit, the RRSP, the FHSA and the tax instalments, so every dollar has one job.
- Own-occupation disability coverage sized to what your household spends, priced while you are young and healthy.
- A plain answer on incorporating, built on the surplus you expect to keep rather than what you bill.
Disability coverage gap
See how much you'd be short each month if you couldn't work. We start from your monthly spending; if you leave it blank we use two thirds of income.
Illustration only. Figures use Ontario 2026 rates; see the assumptions.
We start from your monthly spending; if you leave it blank we use two thirds of income.
Monthly coverage gap
$9,325
22% covered
- Target: Monthly income $12,000
- Covered: Monthly income $2,675
On these numbers, you'd be short about $9,325 a month if you couldn't work.
Assumptions
- The target is your monthly spending, which is how these articles and the advisors size disability coverage — what the household has to keep paying, not what you bill.
- Assumes an own-occupation disability definition; a non-own-occupation or any-occupation policy may pay less, or not at all, in a real claim.
- Association/group plan coverage is often non-guaranteed and can be reduced or lost if the plan changes or membership lapses — treat it as a floor, not a plan.
- The target is capped at $25,000 a month, standing in for a typical carrier issue limit. The cap is illustrative and no source is claimed for it; confirm the real limit against the contract.
- Occupation class (physician) affects real-world policy definitions and premiums; confirm against the actual contract.
Worth reading first
Insurance
OMA Insurance or private coverage: how to decide
What OPIP and OMA Insurance already give an Ontario physician, where the limits sit, and which gaps are worth filling with a private contract.
6 min read
Incorporation
Should I incorporate as a physician in Ontario?
When a medicine professional corporation starts paying for itself in Ontario, what CPSO requires, who can hold shares, and the trade-offs the deferral argument leaves out.
7 min read
Start the conversation
Send your details and one question. We will read it before we reply, and you will hear back within one business day.