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In the past few months I have injured my hands 4 times since I started playing basketball. One break was particularly bad and I wasn't able to use that hand for programming. This slowed down my work during the period that I was healing.

I also get some enjoyment out of playing an instrument and I wasn't able to play during that period either.

I've heard stories of people insuring certain body parts, but I don't know a lot about it.

How difficult will it be to insure my hands?

Is it a common thing to insure a specific body part?

(I should mention that I already have regular health insurance & it paid for the break that I had a little while ago.)

Kat
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Jerome
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    Check out https://technosports.co.in/2020/06/06/top-football-players-who-have-insured-their-body-parts/ – MonkeyZeus Apr 29 '21 at 15:25
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    "...I have injured my hands 4 times since I started playing basketball". Perhaps instead of seeking insurance, you should consider this as a clue that basketball is not your sport? – jamesqf Apr 29 '21 at 16:00
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    @jamesqf or get some training? 4 injuries in a few months == you're doing something wrong and should seek a more experienced person to train you how not to be injured. Basketball is a fun sport, but any sport that routinely has injuries will become un-fun rather quickly and prompt you to stop participating. – SnakeDoc Apr 29 '21 at 22:24
  • @SnakeDoc Yeah you're right. I have started getting coaching each week and I have been trying to reign in my enthusiasm for rebounds etc. Also, I think with some more experience I'll get smarter about how I play and what I should/shouldn't go for. – Jerome Apr 29 '21 at 22:54
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    @Jerome Keep at it! It's wonderful exercise that doesn't feel like exercise, if you know what I mean. Just figure out a way not to get injured so much, that's no fun at all! – SnakeDoc Apr 29 '21 at 23:17
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    The insurer is going to tell you to stop playing basketball to get coverage. Can't get coverage for known threats. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Apr 30 '21 at 03:38
  • I don't understand your goal here, would a bucket full of money let you enjoy playing your instruments? Or would it go to affording special surgery? – pipe Apr 30 '21 at 10:00
  • @pipe There's no goal. I don't know everything about insurance. I was just trying to provide all the information that seemed relevant to my situation. But given the responses I got, you're probably right in that, the part about playing music wasn't very important. – Jerome Apr 30 '21 at 10:18
  • I've had a coworker once who was a programmer who was missing half of one arm at the elbow (accident or birth defect, I was too polite to ask) - I don't think it affected his typing skills too negatively. Not sure what your instrument is, but there've been a number of concert pianists who lost an arm in wartime, and continued to play professionally. (There's a sizeable body of work written for piano left-hand only, less so for right-hand for some reason, likely because more pianists have lost their right than their left?) Wind and string players might be screwed... – Darrel Hoffman Apr 30 '21 at 18:03
  • @Jerome Extended typing as such may be a more general potential danger than just a sore Emacs pinky. There have been projects to include voice commands to sooth the problem. Right of my hat I recall presentations by Tavis Rudd and David Williams. –  May 02 '21 at 10:49
  • @Harper-ReinstateMonica - that's nonsense, an insurer doesn't tell you to stop driving a car when you want a car insurance. – Davor May 03 '21 at 07:32
  • @Davor *because, OP reports being repeatedly injured playing b'ball. OP is obliged to disclose that propensity to the insurer. Your metaphor fits, though: OP is analogous to a really, really bad driver* trying to get blanket liability insurance. The insurer will say "given this ghastly list of at-fault accidents and DUIs, we will not insure the driving activity". – Harper - Reinstate Monica May 03 '21 at 19:54

2 Answers2

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You can get insurance for most anything, individual body parts included.

It's not particularly difficult, but you may find the bill disagreeable. The more specialized your coverage the smaller the underwriting market and therefore the higher the premiums relative to coverage.

With all insurance it's important to pay attention to the terms of the coverage. If going for very specific coverage this is even more important. Are wrists included in your hands-only coverage? What happens if you dislocate your shoulder? How long do you have to be affected before they pay out?

Unless you are a very highly paid athlete/musician/actor then specialized body-part coverage is likely not worthwhile to you.

A far more common approach is to carry disability insurance that will cover lost wages if you are unable to work. Often disability coverage is focused on either short-term or long-term disability (can't work for a month due to broken bone, vs can't work ever again due to something worse), having coverage for both is likely wise.

Hart CO
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For limb insurance on models, celebrities, professional musicians, and the like Lloyds of London famously will insure a limb or part of a public persona with a bespoke policy.

For more commodity coverage, I recall the macabre joy of my elementary school cohort, on receiving an insurance sales flyer at the beginning of every school year year, noting which extremities were worth more from an accidental dismemberment; or marveling as the payouts increased from $2000 to $5000 for a lost limb or eye. In any case, Accidental Death and Dismemberment policies are fairly widespread. My employer includes AD&D coverage at no cost to me in my benefits.

user662852
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    Though Lloyds of London are famously associated with insuring, well, the famous, even ordinary people can get coverage from them. I was once involved in a small local charity golf tournament, and we had the idea to offer the prize of a free auto to anyone who got a hole-in-one on a particular hole. Well, they sent an agent who looked at the difficulty of the hole, asked about the # of golfers and their skill level, the price of the car, did some calculations and gave us a quote. We paid that price and Lloyds would have paid for the car, but nobody got a hole-in-one, Lloyds usually wins. – Glen Yates Apr 29 '21 at 15:39
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    If they didn't usually win, they'd cease to exist quickly, which would be a lose-lose situation for everybody, – Guntram Blohm Apr 29 '21 at 19:58
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    @GlenYates Hey, as long as you made more money from donations than the price of the insurance company's evaluation, your charity won, too! Paying the insurance company for the possibility of someone winning a car is a lot cheaper than actually buying a car that nobody won. – nick012000 Apr 30 '21 at 04:55
  • Lloyds of London will insure anything for anyone. That is their unique selling point. The one thing they do not offer is "standard" insurance cover where the risk assessment is averaged over thousands or millions of identical policies issued to different customers.. – alephzero Apr 30 '21 at 12:14
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    @nick012000 Why would they need to buy the car if no one won it? As with most insurance, the general point is to spend a moderate amount in premiums that you can afford to avoid getting stuck with a huge bill in the case of a tragedy (e.g. thousands of dollars/year in medical insurance to avoid hundreds of thousands to pay for cancer treatment, a transplant, heart surgery, etc.). Meanwhile the insurance company has safety in numbers -- only a small fraction of customers need big payouts. – Barmar Apr 30 '21 at 13:47
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    Using an insurance company for prizes also provides a secondary advantage: It ensures that the competition operator wants the participants to win (because winning gives good PR but costs nothing). Being able to honestly say "we want you to win!" is better from a morale perspective, a PR perspective, and a fairness perspective. – Brian Apr 30 '21 at 13:56
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    @GuntramBlohm: I'm convinced that you can insure a 75% likely event at Lloyds, as long as you're willing to pay the premium. That will obviously cost a fair bit above 75% of the insured value. – MSalters Apr 30 '21 at 14:55
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    @GuntramBlohm Actually most casualty insurance operates at a slight loss, or at best breakeven. Their profits come from investment returns on the substantial financial reserves they sit on. It's no coincidence that Berkshire Hathaway (a.k.a. GEICO) is the second largest insurer in the US. – user71659 Apr 30 '21 at 20:09