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Do you insure your hands?

9 points by chasd00 ↗ HN
I dislocated the last knuckle of my middle finger on my left hand yesterday. I set my finger as soon as I saw it and then went straight to ice. Today, while sore and swollen, I'm able to type at about 80% my normal rate. It got me to thinking, a couple broken fingers is a minor injury but devastating to a person who pays the mortgage with finger dancing on a keyboard. Do any of you carry extra insurance on your hands? Is that even a thing?

8 comments

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ksaj
I remember those weird and probably useless insurance plans they gave us to scare money out of our parents when I was a child. They included such calamities as "losing one thumb, middle finger, and maiming the pinky." -- okay not that bad, but what they covered was so extremely specific and unlikely that if you actually did manage to seriously hurt yourself, it was obvious you'd have to hurt yourself even more to get any money from it.

So, no my hands aren't insured outside of whatever my insurance covers for unspecific injuries that keep me from work. And given what they tried to sell when I was a kid, I wouldn't be too inclined to buy into such insurance.

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codingdave
Short term and long term disability insurance is a thing. And it is fairly standard as part of the insurance benefits that most companies offer their employees.
psv1
Unfortunate accidents aside, there is also the constant battle with RSI. I'm still in my 20s and already I have to make sure that I stretch my wrists, switch between left- and right-hand mouse use, take frequent breaks and so on.
quickthrower2
Another "insurance" is to get high up enough in a company that you are doling out architecture advice and mostly attending meetings. You could pair program where you simply talk and the other person does the typing. For emails use a voice recognition system.
romanovcode
> Is that even a thing?

Yeah, it's a personal work-disability insurance. It is very expensive. But if you lose your hands as a programmer, for example, you will get paid your salary for the rest of your life.

gtsteve
I have an illness/accident insurance policy that I got with my life insurance policy after I bought my house. I'm more concerned about stuff like getting cancer or some other long term disease that could stop me from working for an amount of time, but I checked just now and the loss of use of a hand would be a significant six-figure payout.

So, I didn't realise it but I do. If you're the sole breadwinner (or in my case, the 70-80% breadwinner), I think it is very worthwhile having cover like this.

2rsf
as part of my work's disability insurance, just note that a couple of broken fingers are not something devastating for most developers.