The great recession hit new U.S. group short-term disability and long-term disability insurance sales hard in the first half of the year.
Premiums from new sales of group short-term disability (STD) insurance fell to $379 million during the first half, down 8% from the total for the first half of 2009, and premiums from new sales of group long-term disability (LTD) insurance fell to $739 million, down 21%.
Earned premium revenue from in-force cases fell 2% in the LTD market, to $4.9 billion, and 1% in the STD market, to $1.7 billion.
The total number of employers with LTD coverage held steady, and the number with STD coverage increased 2%, but the number of employees covered fell 2% for both types of plans, JHA says.