Critical illness insurance is on the rise, and employers are helping to drive the growth of the increasingly popular product by offering it as a voluntary benefit.

A recent study by Mercer, a benefits consulting firm, finds that 45 percent of employers with more than 500 employees are offering critical illness insurance, up from 34 percent in 2009.

"What we have seen is a very clear and steady rise in the number of employers offering high-deductible plans," Barry Schilmeister, a principal in the health and benefits practice at Mercer, told Kaiser Health News. "More employers are looking at the reality of pulling back on the value of health plans but looking to offer something else that would make people feel a little more comfortable about taking on that additional risk."

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.