Voluntary

Three-quarters of Americans without health insurance are likely to obtain coverage starting in 2014, according to a new survey by the health and life sciences practice of Oliver Wyman. In all, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act seems on track to reduce the uninsured to 5% of the population.

Against conventional wisdom, the recession didn’t spur employees toward increased short-term and long-term disability claims. On the contrary, a new study of employers from the Integrated Benefits Institute indicates that key aspects of lost-time benefits programs have remained remarkably stable.

In case you missed it, the East Coast has had an odd month or so with an earthquake, hurricane and flooding. In trying to find money to pay for repairs and clean up, some folks might look to their retirement plan savings as a resource. Here are the nuts and bolts of "hardship distributions."

McKinsey & Co. caused quite a stir not only around the insurance world, but all the way to Washington, when it recently revealed that 30% of employers will "definitely or probably" drop their coverage when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014.

If you're looking to build your revenue sources and help your clients introduce or expand their health benefits, voluntary benefit discount programs might be the perfect fit.

In 2012 the rate of medical inflation will continue to rise, PricewaterhouseCoopers reports. Employers are frustrated - not so much by the high cost of the medical as by the apparently intractable upward cost trend that is making benefits plans unsustainable.

McKinsey & Co. caused quite a stir not only around the insurance world, but all the way to Washington, when it recently revealed that 30% of employers will "definitely or probably" drop their coverage when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014.

September marks the observance of Life Insurance Awareness Month, coordinated by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation and supported by more than 100 of the nation's leading insurance companies and industry groups, to shine a spotlight on the growing crisis of too many Americans not having adequate life insurance protection. According to the industry research group LIMRA, 30% of U.S. households have no life insurance whatsoever. Today, there are 11 million fewer American households covered by life insurance compared with six years ago. The bottom line: A majority of families either have no life insurance or not enough, leaving them one accident or terminal illness away from a financial catastrophe for their loved ones. Help educate your employees this month on the value of this important benefit. Learn more at lifehappens.org/life-insurance-awareness-month.

An online cartoon is changing the way employees think about voluntary benefits.

EBay is recruiting an unlikely group of new entrepreneurs into its selling ranks — the visually impaired. Blind citizens have staggeringly high rates of unemployment, with some 70% working-age, legally blind adults out of work, according to the National Federation of the Blind. So the online marketplace, in partnership with NFB, began recruiting test sellers in the blind community late last year. In February, it began a pilot program with…