Blogs
Thus The Need For Supplemental Benefits!
The need for traditional, or core benefits like health insurance has not changed. Giving employees the option to choose one of two health plans is a move in the right direction as far as helping employees meet their financial goals. Still, employees need more. Critical Illness and Accident plans are good examples.
Supplemental Benefits Get Used!
With higher deductibles on health plans, employees are looking for help to pay the bills. Critical Illness and Accident Insurance plans help do just that.
Critical Illness plans
An employee, diagnosed with cancer, may receive $10,000 or $20,000 from a Critical Illness plan. This goes a long way, at a difficult time, in helping them pay their bills. Not only do they have their health insurance deductible to worry about, studies have shown that they will have other new expenses. According to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, cancer patients are 3 times more likely to file for bankruptcy than people without cancer.
A cancer diagnosis is just one example. Critical illness plans often cover diseases like an organ transplant, heart attack, stroke, renal failure, and paralysis, among others.
Accident plans
Accident plans pay a fixed amount when a person, due to injury, incurs a covered medical expense. These plans are especially appreciated by employees with young children or those who lead an active life and again, can help them with their deductible, physical therapy, or whatever they choose to do with the money. Insureds often use the money to pay deductibles, copays, time missed from work, and other expenses they incur.
Who should buy a Critical Illness or Accident plan?
As the title says, “Give Them the Option! We all have different risk tolerances, financial situations, and life circumstances. Does your family have a history of cancer? Do you have a bunch of kids playing sports?
Giving your employees the option to choose or pass on the different plans will help recruitment and retention of employees. 69% of employers said “employee interest” was an important factor in their decision to offer voluntary benefits.1
- Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc. The Employer Viewpoint Spotlight Report, November 2018
Tim Pachowitz helps businesses build, communicate and implement employee benefit plans. As an Account Executive at Benefits, Inc. engineering a planned strategy from start to finish is the most rewarding part of the role. Outside the office, Tim enjoys the outdoors fishing, hiking, and making maple syrup. Most of all, he enjoys time outdoors with his 6 grandsons (no granddaughters yet).