Jay Starkman, the chief executive officer of Engage PEO, a professional employer organization (PEO), laughed a little at the idea that the midsize employers his firm serves might start thinking any time soon about buying employer-paid dental, vision or disability benefits. "All of the attention these days is on major medical," he says. "The employers are not concerning themselves with ancillary products, for this year or next year."

John Haslinger, a vice president at ADP, the payroll services and benefits administration, has run into the same lack of employer interest in products such as dental insurance, vision insurance and disability insurance. "They're letting these plans go almost into auto pilot," he says. In some ways, that indifference may be helpful to brokers who would like to go skiing while most of the in-force plans they serve keep themselves in force. "I have seen no trend whatsoever for employers to drop benefits," Haslinger says.

But the same forces keeping employers from taking the time to drop benefits may be keeping those same employers from adding benefits. Anita Potter, an insurance researcher at LIMRA, says her group has not yet seen signs of employers returning to the traditional non-medical benefits market. "They're really looking to pare costs," Potter says.