Consultants to Contact
- Allison Musso - Vice President & Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- Bonnie Albritton - Vice President & Principal (Dallas)
- Brian Rankin - Vice President & Principal (Washington, D.C.)
- Brian Stentz - Vice President & Principal (Dallas)
- Cabe Chadick - President & Managing Principal (Dallas)
- Chris Merkel - Senior Vice President & Principal (Kansas City)
- David Dillon - Senior Vice President & Principal (Dallas)
- Daniel Moore - Vice President & Senior Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- David Palmer - Vice President & Principal (Baltimore)
- Glenn A. Tobleman - Executive Vice President & Principal (Dallas)
- Heather Robinson - Senior Consultant & Director - Underwriting (Kansas City)
- Jamie Fender - Vice President & Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- Jason Dunavin - Vice President & Senior Consulting Actuary (Kansas City)
- Jeffrey D. Lee - Vice President & Consulting Actuary (Kansas City)
- Josh Hammerquist - Vice President & Principal (Dallas)
- Jing Qian - Vice President & Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- Jacqueline Lee - Vice President & Principal (Dallas)
- Kevin Ruggeberg - Vice President & Senior Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- Kim Shores - Vice President & Principal (Kansas City)
- Muhammed Gulen - Vice President & Legal Consultant (Dallas)
- Moshe Nelkin - Senior Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- Mark Stukowski - Vice President & Principal (Denver)
- Patrick Glenn - Vice President & Principal (Kansas City)
- Robert Dorman - Vice President & Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- Traci Hughes - Vice President & Senior Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- Tom Roberts - Vice President & Consulting Actuary (Dallas)
- Vickie Goodman - Vice President & Director - Compliance (Kansas City)
Testimonial
The economy has certainly helped to shape many consumers' attitudes toward insurance coverage of all kinds. Many are now looking for cut-rate deals on life insurance, or discontinuing it altogether, and likewise now trying to find the most affordable healthcare coverage available to them.
The majority of workers in New York and New Jersey who had access to as many as 10 types of health plans and other supplemental coverage through a private insurance exchange generally opted to take on the health plans with the lowest total costs, somewhat irrespective of their own personal needs, according to a new survey from the Liazon Corporation. In addition, slightly more than half chose to purchase plans that qualified for health savings accounts, and that was well above recent national averages of about 19 percent.
However, while employees generally skimped on their primary health insurance coverage, they were certainly more than willing to take on other types of plans in addition to the basic options, as more than nine out of 10 did so, the report said. Among those most popular with these workers were dental and life insurance coverage, purchased by 72 and 71 percent, respectively. More than half also purchased long-term disability insurance, and 45 percent bought vision coverage as well. Health coaching and even pet insurance were purchased by as many as 10 percent of workers.
Alan Cohen, the chief strategy officer for Liazon who co-authored the study, noted that these findings show that employees are willing to pay for ancillary products that meet their needs rather than dealing with potentially lower co-pays and deductibles for basic health treatment, but this may be a result of efforts to better understand their choices, the report said. In many cases, companies offering consumers a number of health insurance options may take the time to further educate them about their potential choices. Comparing and contrasting these theoretically allows consumers to find the best options available to them.
These results show that insurance companies may want to do more to present consumers a wide range of options, particularly as the individual coverage mandate deadline approaches. Many may go looking for more affordable deals on the private market as a means of keeping their costs down, particularly those who are currently young and healthy and feel as though they will have few such concerns.