Americans are floundering in a sea of options when it comes to choosing insurance plans that offer enough coverage without breaking the bank.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the average
To close these coverage gaps, employees are turning to supplemental insurance for disability, accident, critical illness and life insurance policies. Tech company
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“Our vision for Overalls is that we help people demystify the insurance industry,” says Jon Cooper, co-founder and CEO at Overalls. “When you need insurance, you have to figure it out on your own. But because we focus on what’s the right mix for you and not just any one product, this allows us to present the right balance of coverage, even for people with moderate incomes.”
Overalls’ algorithm accounts for what people care and worry about, as well as what budget will work best for them. For instance, even if someone has a substantial income and could afford more expensive coverage on paper, Overalls’ assessment considers factors such as college loans and mortgages to calculate what a user can actually spend on insurance in a given month. A user’s options can also go beyond health-related policies to include home and auto insurance protection if needed.
“We should be looking at insurance as a portfolio, the way that you look at your investments as a portfolio,” Cooper says. “We're building this recommendation engine and platform to take all those factors into the equation so that each person gets a unique answer designed to help them manage the financial stress of all these moving parts.”
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By offering a personalized portfolio, Cooper hopes consumers will find supplemental insurance enrollment to be more user-friendly and engaging. According to a Benefitfocus report, enrollment rates in supplemental benefits range between just 5% and 20%. Lack of knowledge regarding what employees actually need out of their plans, along with the general mistrust that surrounds the insurance industry has given supplemental insurance the reputation of being more trouble than it’s worth, explains Cooper.
“That’s why we want to reward employees for learning about insurance and connecting with the platform,” he says. “We want to protect and celebrate the people and things they care about most.”
The Overalls platform encourages this engagement through a feature called Celebrate, where a user can receive cash benefits by telling Overall when something momentous happens, such as having a child, getting engaged, buying a house, getting a promotion, paying off debt or getting a pet.
The platform is also working to make insurance policies more transparent. Users will have access to Overalls’ experts, who can advise them on their benefits and make sure they’re tapping into lesser-known perks. Cooper names renter’s insurance as an example, which would cover the cost of a new wardrobe if someone lost their luggage while traveling.
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“A lot of people don't realize just how rich some of these policies are,” Cooper says. “Insurance companies like the fact that people forget, but as an intermediary, we want people to use everything.”
Overalls, while offered through an employer, is paid for by insurance companies and will come at no cost to an employer. The platform will be available to employers starting January of 2022 and will serve as another potential tool for benefits education and enrollment as part of the tech industry’s latest push to make insurance and healthcare more comprehensive and accessible.
“If we can help employees and gig workers with better financial protection, we'll make an entire workforce more resilient,” says Cooper. “A lot of people don't realize how exposed they are, and some of these products can help.”
