Add up everything you’ve insured.

The house. The car. The phone in your pocket has a $15-a-month protection plan on it. You’ve covered the things that can break, burn, or get stolen.

Now look at the one asset that pays for all of it.

A 35-year-old earning $70,000 will bring in well north of $2 million before they retire. That income is the engine. It buys the house, fills the car, funds the 401(k), feeds the kids. Stop the engine and every other payment stops with it.

Most people never insure the engine.

What Health Insurance Was Never Built to Do

This is the confusion I run into most.

People assume that if something serious happens to their health, their health insurance has them covered. It doesn’t. Not the way they picture it.

Health insurance pays the doctor. It pays the hospital, the surgeon, the pharmacy. What it does not do is send you a paycheck while you’re too sick or too hurt to work. It was never designed to. It covers the cost of the treatment, not the mortgage payment you still owe while you’re recovering from it.

That’s a different job. It belongs to a different kind of coverage.

It’s More Likely Than You Think

When people picture becoming disabled, they picture a dramatic accident. A fall. A crash. Something sudden and visible.

That’s not what usually happens.

About 90% of disabilities are caused by illness, not accidents. The leading causes are ordinary, the kind of thing that lands on anyone: back and joint problems, cancer, heart conditions, mental health. (Council for Disability Awareness.)

And the odds aren’t small. Just over one in four of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they reach retirement age. (Social Security Administration.) One in four. That isn’t a rare event. It’s a likely one.

“But I’m Covered at Work”

Two assumptions trip people up here.

The first: workers’ comp will cover me. In most cases, it won’t. Fewer than 5% of disabling conditions are actually work-related. (Council for Disability Awareness.) Get sick on your own time, hurt your back lifting something at home, and workers’ comp never enters the picture.

The second: I’ve got disability through my job. Maybe. Only about a third of private-sector workers have long-term disability coverage through their employer. (Bureau of Labor Statistics.) Plenty of people who believe they’re covered have never actually checked.

When the Income Stops

So picture it. The paycheck stops.

How long does your savings last? For a lot of households, not long. 41% of Americans couldn’t cover a surprise $1,000 expense from savings. More than a third couldn’t cover $400. (Bankrate; Federal Reserve.)

Now hold that against the actual length of a disability. The average long-term disability claim runs about 34 months. Nearly three years. (Council for Disability Awareness.)

A few hundred dollars of cushion against a three-year hole. That’s the gap. It’s why a health problem ends up tangled in so many foreclosures and bankruptcies. Not because of the medical bills alone, but because the paycheck that was supposed to cover everything went quiet.

What This Coverage Actually Does

Disability insurance replaces a portion of your income, usually around 60%, when illness or injury keeps you from working. The check goes to you. You decide whether it covers the mortgage, the groceries, or the car payment.

It isn’t exotic. It’s paycheck protection. The first line of defense, before any of the fancier coverage, because it guards the one thing every other plan quietly depends on.

What ASA Members Can Do

Three honest questions.

First: if my income stopped for a year, what in my life breaks? Name it specifically. The mortgage. The lease. The tuition.

Second: do I actually have disability coverage, and how much? Don’t assume. Check the benefits packet, or ask. “Some” is not the same as “enough.”

Third: how long could my savings carry me before the coverage would matter? If the honest answer is months, and a disability lasts years, you’ve found the gap.

You protect the house because losing it would be a catastrophe. Your income is what makes the house possible in the first place. American Subcontractors Association members can review income-protection options through the ASAdvantage Health Plan, which is a sensible place to start.

You insured the car. Insure the driver.

Chris Cordon is a Benefits Consultant at Affinity Benefits, the program administrator for the ASAdvantage Health Plan.