Breeze Insurance Review: Buy Disability Insurance Online

A steady stream of income can make or break your wellbeing. Your whole life, from food and housing to transportation and internet access, depends on your ability to make money. 

One unexpected mishap, like a slip on black ice or an unplanned surgery, could keep you off your feet and unable to work for weeks, months, or even years. That’s where disability insurance comes in.

Disability insurance covers part of your income when you’re sick or injured and unable to work. It’s sometimes called income insurance. Many employers offer disability insurance as a company benefit, or you can buy it yourself through a broker or directly from an insurer like Breeze.

This Breeze review will take a deep dive into the benefits, features, drawbacks, and application process of Breeze Disability Insurance.

In this review:

• Breeze Disability Insurance: at a glance
• What is Breeze Disability Insurance?
• Pros & cons of Breeze insurance
• What benefits and features does Breeze offer?
• Eligibility & application information
• Breeze alternatives

Breeze Disability Insurance: at a glance

Breeze Disability Insurance
Issue ages	18 – 60
Waiting period	Varies
Benefit amount	$500 – $20,000
Renewability	Until age 65 or 67
Monthly rates	Starting at $9

What is Breeze disability insurance?

Founded in 2019, Breeze prides itself on using modern technology to automate the paperwork-heavy process of buying disability insurance. 

Using Breeze, customers can buy disability insurance online in less time than it takes to watch an episode of “Friends.” No face-to-face or sales calls necessary. It’s all done at your convenience. 

Breeze disability insurance is young, but its policies are underwritten by Assurity Life Insurance Company, a 129-year-old company rated Excellent by A.M. Best. This pretty much guarantees Breeze will make good on paying out what it owes.

Pros & cons of Breeze insurance

Pros

• No credit check is required to obtain coverage.

• Quotes take 15 minutes. 

• In most cases, it’s an all-digital process with no paperwork, salespeople, phone calls, or medical exams, so there’s no purchase pressure.

• Breeze has affordable rates and recommends the best base policy for convenience, but it also allows you to customize.

• It’s underwritten by Assurity Life Insurance Company, a top-rated insurance provider.

• You can pay your annual premium at a lower cost than paying monthly.

Cons

• Breeze only offers long-term disability insurance; it doesn’t have any short-term disability options.

• Unavailable in New York state.

• No FAQ on its website, so you must call or email with questions.

• It’s a new company with fewer customer reviews than many competitors.

• You might have cheaper disability insurance options, including buying through an employer or adding a disability rider to a life insurance policy.

What benefits and features does Breeze offer?

Breeze disability insurance comes with several built-in features at no extra cost. It also offers additional riders you can add to a policy.

Breeze features

• Partial disability: If you go from full disability to partial, Breeze will help you get back to financial stability by paying up to six months of benefits when you go back to work part-time.
• Presumptive disability: The initial waiting period gets skipped if you lose your eyesight, hearing, speech, or any limbs.
• Home modification: Breeze helps cover modifications you need to make to your home to support your disability. 
• Survivor benefit: Breeze will send a lump sum of money to a beneficiary if you happen to die after you’ve received benefits for at least 12 months.
• Vocational rehab: If you’re out on disability for six consecutive months, Breeze will pay for a vocational rehabilitation program at an accredited college, university, or school.
• Organ donor benefit: Breeze will cover you if you become disabled from donating an organ or bone marrow. You have to be a policyholder for at least six months to receive this benefit. 

Additional riders available through Breeze

• Non-cancelable feature: Your policy cannot be canceled as long as you continue to pay your premium.
• Own occupation provision: Breeze will cover you if your disability prevents you from working in your specific profession. 
• Automatic benefit increase: Increases your monthly benefit by 5% annually to keep pace with inflation.
• Catastrophic disability benefit: Breeze helps to hire assistance in the event you can’t work and need help due to cognitive impairment.
• Critical illness benefit: Breeze will cover some costs if you get your first-ever diagnosis or have a procedure from a critical illness like cancer, stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, or paralysis.
• Guaranteed insurability: This option saves you from needing to prove you are insurable again if you plan to increase your policy coverage due to higher income in the future.
• Supplemental DI rider: If you’re totally disabled, Breeze will pay your monthly benefit minus any Social Security benefits.

Eligibility & application information

Anyone can apply for disability insurance; however, you’ll need to meet a few requirements to qualify for coverage.

To be eligible, applicants should:

• Have consistent income history over the last 12 months.
• Not be on probation.
• Not have any pending bankruptcy charges.
• Work at least 30 hours a week.

Breeze won’t cover pre-existing conditions or these occupations:

• Armed forces
• Athlete
• Author 
• Bartender
• Entertainer
• Longshoreman
• Pilot
• Self-employed artist
• Student

There may be exceptions within these, so the best option is to apply to see whether you qualify.

How to apply

The application process is simple—or, a breeze. Make your way over to meetbreeze.com to get a quote. 

You’ll need to provide seven pieces of information. Your:

• Birthdate
• Gender
• Type and category of work
• Net income
• ZIP code
• Nicotine use.

After that, Breeze will provide three monthly benefit options and a recommended policy and waiting period. 

You can select an option or customize your coverage using Breeze’s benefit tool. Once you make your selection and move onto the formal application, Breeze will take a deeper dive into your lifestyle and health. 

At the end, you will sign documents and make a payment before receiving coverage. 

Breeze alternatives

Purchasing disability insurance might not fit into your budget right now, but the Social Security Administration notes that more than 25% of Americans will experience a disability before retirement, so you might want to consider your options for long-term disability insurance. 

If you already have a life insurance policy, it may be cheaper to add disability insurance to your existing policy. Or, if you don’t have a life insurance policy, it may make sense to purchase both life and disability insurance together from the same vendor. 

Another alternative is to pursue disability insurance options through your employer. Many companies cover the monthly premiums for you or offer to have premiums for optional coverage automatically deducted from your paycheck. 

As always, shop around for coverage and read disability insurance reviews, because each insurance company has different policies, and one may cover what another won’t.