Disability Players Gather For JHA Conference

But disability insurers have dramatically improved the profitability of the business in the past few years, and they seem to be making progress at increasing consumer awareness of disability insurance, King said.

One concern is the fact that only half of U.S. workers have disability insurance, and another is that the percentage of workers with disability coverage has changed little over the past 20 years, King said.

Also during the JHA conference:

- As in past years, several exhibitors are offering to help disability insurers assist claimants with the notoriously difficult process of applying for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.

- Marvin Feldman, the new president of the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, Arlington, Va., said insurers seem to be enthusiastic about the idea of supporting the second Disability Insurance Awareness Month campaign, in May 2008, because the first disability awareness month, held in May 2007, did well.

- One attendee is W. Harold Petersen, the founding president of the International DI Society, Seal Beach, Calif. IDIS, which seeks to represent all types of parties involved in the disability insurance industry, has scheduled its fourth annual meeting to start Oct. 24 in Las Vegas.