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April 09, 2006 at 04:00 PM
Today’s employers are facing many types of benefits challenges, not the least of which is the rising costs of group health insurance. Whether from increased utilization or general trends in the market, employers are forced either to reduce benefits or pass these rising costs on to employees in the form of higher deductibles, coinsurance or co-payments.
At the same time, to compete in a tightening labor market, employers need to offer the best benefit package possible, with quality coverage that’s flexible enough to cover a variety of needs, all the while keeping the workload of an already understaffed human resources department at a minimum.
So, what’s a producer to do?
Critical illness opens doors
On your next sales call, ask the employer or HR manager, “Are you being forced to increase out-of-pocket costs or decrease benefits for your employees to manage your health care expenses?”
If the answer is yes, suggest compensating for those cutbacks with an employee-paid CI plan. This way, even if the employer has to reduce or eliminate benefits, he or she still can offer something in return–and at a discount to the employee.
To appreciate the value of a critical illness plan, you need only look at the economic impact that serious medical conditions have had in recent years on the consumer:
o About half of bankruptcies are attributed to medical causes, impacting about 1.9 million individuals (both filers and their dependents), according to MarketWatch.
o Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, nearly 76% had medical insurance at the onset of illness.
These statistics represent Americans with health insurance; however, their coverage, on average, has serious gaps. That’s where the producer comes in.
CI insurance is a benefit designed specifically to help employees with the financial impact of a serious illness. It also gives financial control back to the employee, since CI is a lump-sum benefit the policyholder can use as he or she chooses.
