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Life Insurance
Compared to other popular benefits, a basic life insurance benefit is relatively inexpensive to provide. Some employers provide a modest lump sum benefit (e.g., $10,000 or $20,000), while others offer employees a multiple of their income (e.g., one or two times their annual salary). For those employees who only carry group insurance, the mean coverage is roughly $100,000. Because many employees have needs greater than that, you should consider giving employees the option to purchase additional coverage through your group plan. It doesn’t cost more to offer this option, and it will give your employees the opportunity to get the right amount of coverage for their specific needs, something that might not occur if they had to purchase additional coverage on their own.
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Critical Illness Protection
Critical Illness insurance is flying under the radar relative to other voluntary benefits, but a new study seeks to raise the product’s altitude among plan sponsors by showing how it adds financial protection and outlining steps to obtain the right amount of coverage.
Critical Times Require Critical Solutions suggests that medical and disability income coverage may not be enough in the event of a serious illness, noting that on average it costs $35,500 to recover from a critical illness, most of which is linked to lost income.
The report also noted that just 16% of working Americans surveyed feel confident they could pay for a medical emergency and as many as 40% live paycheck to paycheck.
"When faced with a critical illness, many individuals are surprised that their medical coverage may not address the full financial consequences of their sickness," Clea Barth, vice president of critical-illness insurance products for MetLife, noted in a news release.
"A lump sum benefit provided by critical illness insurance can help mitigate the spike in expenses that can result from deductibles, co-insurance, uncovered expenses and annual benefit maximums. However, critical-illness insurance doesn’t yet have high visibility within employee benefit offerings because there’s still considerable lack of awareness surrounding this product," she adds.
Just 28% of full-time employees surveyed by MetLife have heard of CII and most confuse it with health insurance, disability income insurance or government assistance. But once the product features are explained, about 75% of employees who don’t have CII or never heard of it find the concept appealing.
Most are even willing to pay the entire premium, and when CII is offered, MetLife research shows that it can burnish the perception of an employer.
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Disability Insurance
Disability insurance is one of the least understood types of insurance, but also one of the most important. Many people mistakenly believe that workers who become disabled will receive disability income either through Social Security, Worker's Compensation or both. But Social Security disability benefits are often quite restrictive and employees don't qualify for Worker's Compensation unless the disabling illness or injury happened on the job.
Employer-sponsored disability income insurance is much less restrictive and falls into two main categories. Short-term disability income insurance plans usually offer benefits that are paid for a maximum of 26 weeks, while long-term disability benefits generally continue for the length of the disability or until retirement age. Cost can be affected by adjusting the maximum monthly benefit, benefit periods and waiting periods before benefits begin. This is another area where it's possible to allow employees to purchase additional coverage either by purchasing increased benefits under the group program or through a voluntary benefit program.
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Document Library
| Name | Description |
 | Humana | Vision Care Summary |
| Humana | Disability Income Summary |
| Humana | Critical Care Summary |
| Humana | Accident Insurance Summary |
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