Why Voluntary Benefits
Voluntary insurance plans can resolve a bevy of market pressures faced by HR and benefits managers today, at no cost to their companies. As a unique opportunity to satisfy competing priorities, voluntary insurance programs accomplish the seemingly impossible—help create a more attractive, benefits package in the face of diminishing budgets, rising health care costs, and a heated competition for talent.
Voluntary insurance is made available to employees by their employers and is 100 percent employee-paid through payroll deduction. It can include policies for accident, cancer/specified-disease, dental, life, short-term disability, specified health event, hospital intensive care, lump sum critical illness, and vision. It is traditionally viewed as coverage that exceeds core
benefits packages, yet as many companies are cutting back on health care coverage to curb rising costs, the need for voluntary insurance has become essential to many businesses.
More than half of the country's employers provide voluntary insurance, tapping into a remarkably easy way to look after the well-being of their workforce through the following:
CUSTOMIZED BENEFITS PACKAGES – Employees can select coverage relevant to their circumstances and build a benefits plan tailored to their specific needs.
CASH BENEFITS – Voluntary insurance policies pay benefits regardless of any other health coverage, helping cover deductibles, copayments, and other unexpected expenses.
MAKE BENEFITS MORE ACCESSIBLE - The cost of health care continues to outpace inflation and household earnings at a pace greater than 2 to 11. To reduce the burden on corporate bottom lines, benefits decision-makers are often forced to pass larger portions of these increases onto their workforce.
The result, however, is that employees are now faced with some tough decisions, with many resorting to drawing from personal savings, dipping into retirement accounts, and increasing use of credit—all of which can lead to personal bankruptcy. When an employee faces financial difficulties, an employer feels the impact as well in the form of decreased job performance, absenteeism, and dissatisfaction. At the same time, HR managers remain tasked with attracting and retaining the best employees.
AFLAC CAN HELP!! Employers are getting more creative than ever with Aflac to help reduce or eliminate currents gaps in health care coverage at no cost to the company.
