How Much Disability Insurance Costs for CRNAs

The CRNAs who call us have usually already heard "it depends." That is true as far as it goes. Seaworthy has placed individual disability coverage for hundreds of CRNAs across the five major carriers, and the placed book says what nurse anesthetists pay.

How much does disability insurance cost for a CRNA?

Across the CRNA policies in our placed book, as of the 2026 review, most premiums land between roughly $225 and $430 per month. The median sits near $300, about $3,600 per year.

Measured against income, CRNA premiums typically land between 1% and 2.5% of earnings. The middle half of our book falls between about 1.2% and 2.3%. CRNAs earn a median annual wage of $223,210 as of May 2024 per the BLS Occupational Employment Statistics, so a $300 premium is about 1.6% of the median CRNA wage.

These are medians of policies as issued across recent years, not current new-business quotes, and the spread around them is wide. A 27-year-old buying $5,000 of monthly benefit and a 52-year-old buying $15,000 with cost-of-living and residual riders are both in that book, and they are not paying anything close to the same premium.

What does the price actually buy?

The premium alone is the wrong comparison number, because two CRNAs paying $300 a month may be buying very different amounts of protection. The useful metric is cost per $1,000 of monthly benefit.

In our placed book the median runs about $49 per month per $1,000 of monthly benefit. Each $1,000 of benefit is monthly income if a disability ends or interrupts anesthesia work, payable in most placed structures to age 65, and generally received free of income tax when the premium is funded with after-tax dollars. Tax treatment does vary with how the premium is paid, so confirm specifics with a tax professional.

A CRNA carrying $10,000 of monthly benefit at that median unit cost pays around $490 a month, and one carrying $6,000 pays closer to $295.

Premium dollars drift up only slowly by age in our book, because older buyers tend to carry smaller benefits.

Why the same coverage costs nearly twice as much at 50

Sorted by age at purchase, the unit cost in our placed book climbs through every band, about $37 per month per $1,000 of benefit for buyers under 30, the mid $40s through the 30s, around $50 in the early 40s, low $60s in the late 40s, and about $69 past 50.

That is close to a doubling between a purchase in the late 20s and one after 50, and it understates the real cost of waiting. Premiums on a non-cancelable individual policy are set by age and health at application, then stay level to 65. A buyer at 28 locks the high $30s per unit for an entire career, and a buyer at 50 locks the high $60s.

Health is the other half of the same argument. About 4 in 10 CRNA applications in our book drew an exclusion or a rating (2026 audit), the highest rate of any profession we place, and the leading driver is mental and nervous history, followed by back and neck. Underwriting prices what the medical record shows on the application date, and records only accumulate, so the clean application window can close without notice. The CRNA underwriting guide covers what triggers those outcomes.

Why occupation class makes CRNAs pay more than office professionals

Disability carriers price occupations by risk tier, and the classes assigned to nurse anesthetists sit below the classes most physicians and office-based professionals receive. The class, more than any other single factor, is why a CRNA pays more per $1,000 of benefit than an accountant of the same age and health.

The assignment also varies between carriers for the same CRNA. MassMutual typically classes CRNAs at 4A, the strongest assignment among the five majors, Principal generally uses a 2M+ class, Guardian and Ameritas commonly apply 3M, and The Standard's 2P sits lowest, which also keeps its own-occupation rider out of reach for CRNAs.

Those class differences move real dollars, and they interact with each carrier's rider pricing and discounts, so the cheapest carrier for one CRNA profile is often a different carrier for the next. The CRNA quote comparison lays the five carriers side by side.

Do male and female CRNAs pay different rates?

Generally yes. Individual disability insurance is typically gender-rated, and women commonly pay more for the same benefit. In our placed CRNA book, the median unit cost for women runs about $53 per month per $1,000 of monthly benefit against about $42 for men, a gap in the neighborhood of 25%.

Where a unisex rate is available, usually through an employer-sponsored multi-life arrangement with a participation discount, it can meaningfully change the math for female CRNAs. Ask about it on any quote. Availability turns on the employer's plan setup.

What a CRNA is quoted today at $10,000 a month

The placed-book figures above are what CRNAs paid over recent years at whatever benefit they chose. Current new-business pricing is a different question, and in 2026 our team ran carrier illustrations at the occupation class each carrier assigns nurse anesthetists to answer it.

At $10,000 a month of benefit, a 35-year-old male CRNA is quoted $432 to $636 a month across the four carriers that quoted a CRNA class, and a 35-year-old female CRNA $675 to $1,024, on a policy loaded with every optional rider and no discount. The gap from the cheapest of the four to the most expensive is 47 percent for a man and 52 percent for a woman.

Those are class rates, and a real CRNA file lands at or below them at every one of the four, by up to about 12 percent. Two of the carriers require the 24-month mental and nervous limitation for nurse anesthetists and price it with a discount of roughly 5 to 10 percent, depending on the carrier and state, and their illustrations were run without it.

A third carrier's illustration includes an endorsement that removes the limitation, and that carrier does not issue the endorsement to nurse anesthetists. The fourth carrier's illustration already carries a mental and nervous limitation in the base contract with no discount attached, so its class rate is at or within a few percent of what a CRNA is quoted.

The fifth major carrier, whose CRNA class sits below the threshold for its own-occupation rider, was not in the study's CRNA run, so every range in this section spans four carriers and the four are the ones that write nurse anesthetists on a true own-occupation definition.

Monthly premiums from the 2026 illustrations at the four carriers that quoted a CRNA class, before the mental and nervous adjustments described above. The COLA row removes the cost of living rider premium itemized on each illustration, 9 to 16 percent of the total.

The four class rates divide out to $43 to $64 per $1,000 of monthly benefit for a man at 35, and the book's median unit cost across all ages, both sexes, and every discount is $49. The female class rates sit 45 to 76 percent above the male rate at the same carrier, wider than the book's 25 percent gap, partly because the book mixes in unisex multi-life placements and the illustrations do not.

What the illustrations show about age and benefit size

The same $10,000 of coverage that costs a male CRNA $344 to $501 a month at 28 costs $432 to $636 at 35 and $684 to $933 at 45, on the class rates at the four carriers. At each carrier that is 26 to 35 percent more at 35 than at 28 and another 45 to 58 percent more at 45 than at 35, so the illustration ladder roughly doubles between 28 and 45, which is the same doubling the placed book shows between its under-30 and over-50 buyers.

The illustrations quoted the female CRNA at 35 only, so the 45 to 76 percent difference above is the guide for a woman reading the ladder.

Benefit size moves the price almost in proportion. A male CRNA at 35 is quoted $217 to $337 a month for $5,000 of benefit, $432 to $636 for $10,000, and $642 to $862 for $15,000 at the three carriers that will issue a CRNA class that much, since one caps its CRNA class at $10,000 a month.

Each extra $1,000 of monthly benefit costs $42 to $60 a month at the class rates, measured between each carrier's own illustrations (three between $5,000 and $15,000, one between $5,000 and $10,000), and applying each carrier's female-to-male ratio to its own slope puts a woman at an estimated $66 to $101. The male unit costs bracket the book's $49 median from both sides.

On the rider side, the cost of living rider is 9 to 16 percent of a CRNA's class-rate premium, the residual rider 12 to 17 percent, and the catastrophic rider 4 to 12 percent, with the catastrophic amount itself differing by carrier because each illustration carries the largest amount the carrier allows alongside its no-cost benefit increase rider.

New York priced the three comparable carriers 0 to 5 percent above Texas, and California priced the two comparable carriers 12 to 25 percent above the Texas class rates, a gap that is wider for a real CRNA file than the printed range, because the California figures already carry the 24-month limitation both carriers attach there and the Texas class rates do not. The other carriers sell a different product in those states, so their quotes are not compared.

In dollars, a male CRNA quoted $432 to $636 in Texas is quoted $432 to $667 in New York across the three comparable carriers and $486 to $716 in California across the two.

How the quote study was run

Our team generated the illustrations in August 2026, one per carrier per scenario, for a 35-year-old non-smoking CRNA in Texas earning $220,000 a year, with $10,000 a month of benefit, a 90-day elimination period, benefits to age 65, a true own-occupation definition, and every optional rider the carrier offers, at the occupation class each carrier assigns nurse anesthetists in its mid-2026 producer guide.

Each carrier quoted that CRNA once as a man and once as a woman, and the male profile was then re-quoted at 28, at 45, at $5,000 and $15,000 of benefit, and as a California and a New York issue, one change at a time, where the carrier's product and class allowed it.

At $220,000 the fully loaded class rates run 2.4 to 3.5 percent of income for a man and 3.7 to 5.6 percent for a woman, above the 1 to 2.5 percent the placed book shows, because the book's policies carry smaller benefits and discounts that the study's sticker configuration does not.

The study quoted four of the five carriers at a CRNA class. The fifth carrier's CRNA class was not run, so the ranges above are four-carrier ranges and not the five-carrier ranges on our dentist and physician pricing pages.

Every printed dollar figure is a class rate read off an illustration except two. The without-COLA row subtracts each illustration's itemized COLA premium, and the female cost per extra $1,000 is each carrier's male slope multiplied by its own female-to-male ratio at $10,000, ratios that ran 1.45 to 1.76. The rider-share and state figures use the carrier subsets described above.

No figure has the CRNA-specific mental and nervous adjustment applied, because the limitation discounts two carriers require are not itemized on their illustrations and would have to be assumed, the third carrier's endorsement is itemized but its removal would single that carrier out, and the fourth carrier's producer guide and its quoting tool disagree on whether a CRNA gets a further discount, which we have flagged for a re-run. Where the adjustment matters, it is stated next to the figure.

The catastrophic rider was set at the largest amount each carrier's software allows while keeping its no-cost benefit increase rider at the study income. Monthly figures are the carriers' monthly-pay rates at three of the four, which carry an installment charge above one-twelfth of the annual rate, and one-twelfth of the annual premium at the fourth. We plan to re-run the CRNA cut of the study every six to twelve months, and to add the fifth carrier when its CRNA class is illustrated.

How does the AANA plan's pricing compare?

The AANA Member Advantage plan usually prices below an individual policy at younger ages, which is why so many of the CRNAs we quote already hold it.

The difference is what the price does next. The AANA plan is age-banded, and on the current published rate schedule a CRNA's monthly premium in the early 50s commonly runs roughly 3 to 4.5 times the premium in the 30s for the same benefit, and it keeps climbing through every five-year band. An individually owned non-cancelable policy locks its rate at issue and cannot be repriced for the life of the contract.

The fair comparison is the career-long cost of each structure, alongside contract differences in the residual trigger, the mental and nervous cap, and the benefit reduction at 65. Many of the CRNAs we place hold both, with the individual policy as the core. The full contract breakdown is in our AANA plan analysis.

What moves a CRNA premium up or down

Beyond age, health, gender, and carrier class, the price is built from choices, and the placed book shows how the CRNAs we place make them. On the elimination period, 90-day is the most common choice, on 82% of the placed book (2026 audit), and 180-day is the other mainstream structure, on roughly a third of recent placements. The two are legitimate fits rather than a discount ladder; 180 suits CRNAs with cash reserves comfortably past six months, and the premium difference can fund benefit or riders.

A benefit period to age 65 appears on 87% of the book (2026 audit), and shortening it is a poor place to economize since long claims are the expensive ones.

Riders are chosen deliberately. The residual disability rider, on over 95% of the book (2026 audit), keeps partial income loss covered and is close to non-negotiable for anesthesia work. Cost-of-living riders now appear on over 70% of our placements from the last two years (2026 audit).

A benefit-increase rider lets the coverage grow later without new medical underwriting, at no charge on every illustration in the 2026 study, which matters for CRNAs early in their earning curve. The career-stage guide covers which riders are worth adding at each stage.

Apply while the medical record is clean, price all five carriers rather than accepting the first class assignment, and settle structure questions like the elimination period on fit with your advisor. A quote comparison at your actual age, income, and health profile replaces every median on this page with your number.