Top carriers for OB/GYNs
All five carriers below can be written as true own-occupation for most professions. Guardian and Ameritas build it into the base definition, MassMutual and Principal deliver it through their own-occupation rider or definition, and at The Standard it comes through a rider whose availability depends on your occupation class. Your optimal carrier depends on your specific specialty, income structure, and state. We compare all five side-by-side in every analysis.
| Carrier | Product | AM Best rating | Contract strength |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Provider Choice | A++ (Superior) | Strongest contract of the five, in our view |
 | Platinum Advantage | A (Excellent) | Contract clarity |
 | Income Protector | A+ (Superior) | Most flexible underwriting in our experience; deep rider menu |
 | Radius Choice | A++ (Superior) | Mutual-company dividends; billing-code own-occ |
 | DInamic Cornerstone | A (Excellent) | Competitive pricing; highest BOE limit of the carriers we place |
Provider Choice
- AM Best
- A++ (Superior)
- Strength
- Strongest contract of the five, in our view
Radius Choice
- AM Best
- A++ (Superior)
- Strength
- Mutual-company dividends; billing-code own-occ
Income Protector
- AM Best
- A+ (Superior)
- Strength
- Most flexible underwriting in our experience; deep rider menu
Platinum Advantage
- AM Best
- A (Excellent)
- Strength
- Contract clarity
DInamic Cornerstone
- AM Best
- A (Excellent)
- Strength
- Competitive pricing; highest BOE limit of the carriers we place
Get a comparison of all five carriers tailored to your specialty
Get a Quote ComparisonWhy is an OB/GYN's disability risk different from a surgeon's?
The OB/GYN role stacks surgical physical load on top of unpredictable call and obstetric malpractice exposure, so more kinds of condition can stop the work than for a pure surgeon or a pure clinician.
OB/GYN practice sits at the intersection of surgical expertise, clinical autonomy, and occupational unpredictability. You manage complex pregnancies, deliver babies under time pressure, perform complex gynecologic surgery, and respond to emergencies at any hour. This hybrid role creates a disability risk profile that differs fundamentally from either pure surgeons or pure procedural providers.
No carrier writes an OB/GYN-specific contract, and none needs to, because a claim is decided by the definition type applied to the duties you were performing when disability began.
What the hybrid role does demand is care in two places. The definition should protect the procedural share of income, which is what Guardian's enhanced MD/DO definition and MassMutual's CPT billing-code recognition are built for. And the mental and nervous election deserves attention, because the work runs on unpredictable call alongside the physical load of operating, and full-benefit-period coverage is available at Guardian, MassMutual, and Principal, outside California.
OB/GYN is one of five surgical specialties priced together, male and female, on our surgeon premium comparison.
A proper OB/GYN disability policy must acknowledge your hybrid practice, protect the work you do in the OR and labor unit, define disability around your actual work mix, and make sure that a disability in one component of your practice does not force you into a diminished occupational role in another component.
What does disability insurance cost an OB/GYN?
OB/GYN draws 3P at both MassMutual and The Standard, 3M at Guardian, 4M at Principal, and 4P at Ameritas in the carriers' current occupation guides, and the table prices those classes at 2026 list, Texas basis. Read each cell as the low and high carrier before any employer or association discount. Every price covers a true own-occupation definition, residual (partial) disability coverage, the increase riders, and benefits payable to 65. Left out is the catastrophic disability rider, which the full-package prices on our surgeon cost page include.
| Profile | Monthly benefit | 180-day wait | 180-day wait + inflation protection | 90-day wait + inflation protection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male, 30 | $10,000 | $225–$345 | $280–$385 | $330–$455 |
| Female, 30 | $10,000 | $425–$535 | $505–$600 | $595–$705 |
| Male, 35 | $10,000 | $270–$420 | $330–$465 | $385–$545 |
| Female, 35 | $10,000 | $505–$650 | $595–$720 | $700–$845 |
| Male, 45 | $10,000 | $410–$665 | $475–$720 | $555–$845 |
| Female, 45 | $10,000 | $760–$1,030 | $855–$1,115 | $1,010–$1,310 |
Lowest to highest carrier, monthly, 2026 list price, Texas basis. Figures include residual coverage, the no-cost increase riders, and the own-occupation rider at carriers that sell one separately. They exclude the catastrophic disability rider, and inflation protection appears only where a column says so.
The female rows run well above the male ones at every age. At 35, a woman in OB/GYN pays $505 to $650 a month for $10,000 of benefit behind a 180-day wait, against $270 to $420 for a male colleague, and at 45 her range has climbed to $760 to $1,030.
These prices are from Seaworthy's 2026 quote study, built on carrier illustrations we ran in August 2026 for ages 28, 35, and 45 and for monthly benefits of $5,000, $10,000, and $15,000. Rows at age 30 are interpolations between those illustrated ages. The female numbers come from applying each carrier's measured female-to-male ratio, reflecting carrier female rates, and the 180-day prices are set at 85% of the 90-day illustrations.
The Standard requires its 24-month mental and nervous limitation at 3P, where it places OB/GYNs, and Ameritas requires its own limitation for the specialty, 12 months per occurrence on Texas policies, so those two carriers' figures carry the limitation and the discount each gives for it, while the Guardian, Principal, and MassMutual figures carry the full benefit period. A different state, a health history, or an employer or association discount changes the result.
OB/GYN is one of five surgical specialties priced with the catastrophic rider in our surgical specialty cost study, and the disability insurance cost guide explains how a premium is assembled for any occupation.
What puts an OB/GYN's career at risk?
An OB/GYN's career is at risk when a condition takes away the ability to operate, to cover obstetric call, or to control fine hand movement. A spine condition, a psychiatric illness, and a hand or upper-extremity injury are three examples, and how each claim pays comes down to the contract terms covered below.
Musculoskeletal demands of prolonged surgery
Operating room work demands sustained standing for hours, fine motor control with instruments, repetitive gripping, and awkward positioning over time. Hysterectomies, myomectomies, advanced laparoscopic procedures, and particularly cesarean sections in labor (where you cannot control the timing or pace) depend on your lumbar spine, cervical spine, shoulders, and hands holding up through each case.
A herniated disc, cervical spondylosis, or an upper extremity nerve compression, for example, can make hours at the table impossible. A disability from spinal injury or hand/nerve dysfunction directly impairs your ability to operate safely.
Some policies, group plans especially, may exclude documented spine conditions or limit benefits, and some may cap musculoskeletal claims at 24 months. No individual contract we place names back, neck, or hand injury, and none needs to, because a true own-occupation definition pays when any sickness or injury prevents the material duties of your OB/GYN work. What to check is that the definition is true own-occupation and that underwriting has not attached an exclusion rider for a documented spine or hand condition, so the claim runs for your full benefit period.
Unpredictable on-call duty
Unlike a surgeon with block OR time, you cannot plan your schedule around deliveries or obstetric emergencies. Being on-call means interrupted sleep, canceled plans, and the constant cognitive load of anticipating labor complications. Covering that schedule takes stamina and clear judgment at any hour.
American Medical Association figures for 2025 show 41.9% of physicians reporting at least one burnout symptom, lower than 43.2% in 2024 and 48.2% in 2023. An OB/GYN who develops depression or anxiety severe enough to stop obstetric call has a disability claim, and the contract term that governs the claim is the mental and nervous limitation.
OB/GYN is not in the group of occupations every carrier caps at 24 months, but The Standard and Ameritas still require a limitation for the specialty. The Standard classes OB/GYNs at 3P, where its 24-month limitation is required, and Ameritas requires one in every state except Vermont, for 24 months, or 12 months per occurrence if the policy is issued in Texas. Guardian, MassMutual, and Principal leave the full benefit period available by default or by election.
State rules then layer on top. Principal requires the limitation in New York and on individual Florida policies. In California, Guardian, MassMutual, Principal, and The Standard all require it. Ameritas's version should be quoted for the state where you live.
If you have any history of depression, anxiety, or occupational stress treatment, underwriting will weigh it, which is the strongest reason to apply before that history exists.
Malpractice stress and litigation exposure
You are responsible for maternal and fetal outcomes simultaneously. Adverse events, even those beyond your control, can bring litigation. Suppose a physician's post-traumatic stress, depression, or anxiety makes a return to full obstetric practice impossible.
No contract we place names malpractice stress, and none needs to, because a psychiatric claim after an adverse event is decided like any other sickness claim. Two terms decide how it pays. The mental and nervous limitation sets how long benefits run, the full benefit period at Guardian, MassMutual, and Principal where the state allows it, and a capped period at The Standard and Ameritas. The own-occupation definition decides whether you are disabled when you cannot return to OB/GYN practice but could work in another role.
At application, disclose any prior malpractice claims, suits, or settlements fully. This is standard underwriting, and hiding it creates claim denial risk later.
Hand and upper extremity injury
Fine motor control is non-negotiable in your role. A peripheral nerve injury, focal dystonia, severe carpal tunnel syndrome, or medication side effect that affects tremor or hand steadiness disqualifies you from operative work. You could theoretically work in office-based gynecology or primary care, but that is not your occupation.
Your policy must define your disability around your operative OB/GYN duties, not around your theoretical ability to work in non-surgical roles. Avoid any policy that permits the insurer to deny your claim by arguing you could work as a non-operative gynecologist or general practitioner.
How should own-occupation coverage handle the OB/GYN hybrid practice?
It should be a true own-occupation definition, which measures the claim against the full OB/GYN practice as it stood when disability began.
What you need
Under a true own-occupation definition, disability means losing the ability to perform your occupation's substantial and material duties, and for an OB/GYN those duties span obstetric patient care and operative gynecology together. The standard works in your favor. The claim is measured against the practice you were running when disability began, so if you cannot safely perform cesarean sections or operate, the benefit is judged against that full OB/GYN practice, regardless of whether office gynecology or primary care remains theoretically possible.
There is no obstetrics-versus-gynecology clause to negotiate in the individual contracts we place. The protection comes from the definition type, true own-occupation rather than modified or any-occupation, and from the specialty-recognition features each carrier offers.
Carrier language matters most here for a proceduralist. Guardian's Provider Choice gives MDs and DOs an enhanced own-occupation option. If procedures earned more than half of your pre-disability income and you can no longer do them, you are totally disabled, even with non-procedural work still possible. An OB/GYN who earns by operating and delivering gets the operative side protected directly.
Guardian also lets you narrow the covered occupation to one recognized specialty. MassMutual gets to the same place through CPT billing codes, making the specialty those codes verify your own occupation, which leaves a documented record of the obstetric and surgical work the policy covers.
Principal puts the core protection in plain contract language. Its Income Protector (form ICC22-800) provides that a policyholder "will be Totally Disabled even if You are Working in another occupation as long as You are unable to perform the Substantial and Material Duties of Your Own Occupation" (language varies by state and edition. The issued policy governs), and Principal recognizes a single professionally recognized medical specialty as that occupation. For an OB/GYN who can no longer deliver or operate but could see office patients, that sentence is the one doing the work.
How a shifting practice mix is handled
Individual disability contracts do not subdivide an OB/GYN's benefit by practice component, and there is no obstetrics-versus-gynecology clause to negotiate. A claim is measured against the material and substantial duties of your occupation at the time disability begins.
If your practice is 60% obstetrics when a back injury ends your operative work, the claim is judged against that practice as it stood, not against a hypothetical office-only role. For a proceduralist, Guardian's enhanced MD/DO definition sharpens this further, paying total disability when procedures that produced over half of pre-disability income stop, even while non-procedural work goes on.
The practical implication runs the other direction from the worry. Because the occupation is fixed at claim time, a practice that drifts toward gynecology or office work over a career is simply judged as it stands then. What you lock at purchase are the definition type, the riders, and your insurability. What you keep current is the benefit amount, through a future increase option, as the practice and income evolve.
Residual and partial disability coverage
Your disability may not be total. You might reduce your surgical load, work shorter hours, focus on office-based gynecology temporarily, or step into administrative or teaching roles part-time.
A residual rider covers a portion of your income loss if your earnings drop below a threshold, a 15 to 20 percent income loss at the five carriers we place. This is far more realistic than betting on "total" disability. Make sure your policy includes residual coverage and that the definition does not penalize you for reducing your operatively heavy schedule.
How do the carriers differ for an OB/GYN?
The five carriers we place reach own-occupation for an OB/GYN through different mechanisms, class the specialty differently, and price it differently, so the same physician can come back with materially different offers.
The contract points that separate them for this specialty are how the definition protects procedural income (Guardian's enhanced MD/DO test, MassMutual's CPT billing-code recognition, The Standard's ABMS deeming), how the mental and nervous limitation is handled (available at Guardian, MassMutual, and Principal, required at The Standard and Ameritas, and required in California at Guardian, Principal, MassMutual, and The Standard, with the Ameritas provision to be quoted for a California policy), and where the residual trigger sits (15 to 20 percent across the five).
Without comparison, you are betting on your agent's relationship with a single carrier, not on your actual protection. We quote you across the five carriers we place simultaneously, submitting your OB/GYN profile to each, and present a side-by-side comparison.
You see exactly what each offers based on your unique circumstances, how they define your occupational class, how each handles the mental and nervous limitation that governs a stress or burnout claim, and how each own-occupation definition treats a back or hand injury that ends operating. For OB/GYNs, this comparison often reveals substantial differences in premium, occupational definition, and rider availability. That difference compounds over a 30-year career.
How early should an OB/GYN lock in coverage?
The final year of residency, or the months right after fellowship or board certification, is the optimal window for an OB/GYN to apply. Premiums are at their floor then, and a clean record fixes your health class before age and history can change it. Five years into practice the monthly premium is noticeably higher. Worse, any occupational injury, malpractice event, health diagnosis, or psychiatric episode between now and when you apply could trigger exclusions or downgrade your rating.
Seaworthy's 2026 audit of its placed book found a rating or exclusion on about 26% of physician policies, with mental and nervous history behind roughly 40% of those physician exclusions. The median age at issue was 36.
For a specialty in which The Standard and Ameritas already require a mental and nervous limitation, that is the practical case for applying while the record is clean. Buy with realistic expectations about scale, too, since carrier issue limits hold the maximum benefit under a high physician income, which is exactly why the definition and rider decisions on this page matter so much.
If you're already past residency, apply now. The cost of waiting another year exceeds the cost of applying today. Lock in your insurability while it remains clean. The physician overview sets this timing advice in the context of the full physician placement picture, including how the carriers class each specialty.