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U.S. employers are using their non-major-medical, non-retirement benefits energy to help workers cope with holes in major medical insurance coverage.
Insurers recorded $3.9 billion in new sales of the "other benefits" in the third quarter, up 3.6% from the total for the third quarter of 2023, according to new LIMRA survey data.
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The new numbers are based on results from a LIMRA workplace benefits issuer survey. The survey includes sales of employer-paid group insurance, employer-sponsored voluntary benefits and sales of individual products offered through worksite marketing programs.
New workplace life sales increased just 1%, to $620 million, and new workplace sales of disability insurance fell 3%, to $649 million.
But overall workplace sales of supplemental health insurance products climbed 6%, to $2.6 billion.
Sales of hospital indemnity insurance policies, which can help workers handle deductibles and coinsurance bills by paying a fixed amount of cash when workers or other insureds enter the hospital, rose 12%, and the number of employer groups offering hospital indemnity insurance jumped 20%.
The number of employer groups offering hospital indemnity products rose 41% in the first half of the year, and the year-to-date total is up 33%.
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LIMRA did not break out the actual amount of revenue coming from hospital indemnity insurance sales or the actual number of employers offering hospital indemnity coverage.
The number of employer groups offering accident insurance rose 8% in the third quarter, year-over-year, and the number offering critical illness insurance rose 10%.
Patrick Leary, a LIMRA executive, suggested that what happens to sales of non-major-medical, non-retirement benefits in the coming year will depend on the overall state of the economy and labor market.
"Tariffs could hinder growth and employer costs moving forward," Leary said.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
