Every year around this time, benefits brokers get word ofLIMRA’s most recent data on voluntary benefits sales.

Last year, the consulting group reported a fourth straight year of brisk growth in thevoluntary market. Nearly all lines did well, with vision,critical illness, and accident insurance leading the pack.

But new research on the financial hardship faced by insuredAmericans suggests that growing adoption of voluntary benefitoptions may still be lagging behind consumers’ needs,notwithstanding years of improved sales.

For proactive brokers, this lag means plenty of opportunity.Data shows that more employers than ever are seeing workers sufferunder the reality of mounting out-of-pocket costs whilehigh-deductible plans continue to become the norm.

The key is in knowing the current environment – and how toposition voluntary benefits as the solution.

One in five insured workers struggle with medicaldebt

A decade’s worth of cost-shifting has helped underscore thevalue of voluntary products, as out-of-pocket costs for enrolleesin all types of workplace health care plans have skyrocketed evenas health care costs and premium inflation has leveled.

In 2015, the average single-coverage deductible for all plantypes was $1,318 -- a steady increase since 2012, when the averagefirst eclipsed the four-figure threshold.

Last year’s average is about a 125 percentage increase over2006, when the average single-enrollee deducible was $584 acrossall plans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2015Employer Health Benefits Survey.

By another measure, out-of-pocket costs have increased nearlythree times as fast as premiums in the past decade.

In January, Kaiser and the New York Times released results froma survey detailing just how rising costs are affecting Americanworkers. A sampling of more than 2,500 respondents revealed anemerging trend: Medical bills are taking a toll beyond the ranks ofthe uninsured.

Among the insured in the survey, one in five reported strugglingto pay medical bills in the past year.

For many, this created real financial strain. Two-thirdsexhausted their savings to cover bills, and more than 40 percentsaid they took on an extra job or worked more hours to avoidplunging into further debt. Other insured workers reported loadingup credit cards and borrowing from retirement plans to covermedical debt.

Perhaps most distressing: More than one-third of covered workersclaimed medical bills prevented them from covering basic expenseslike food and housing.

The most common sources for these bills? Claims denials andout-of-network care – the expenses of which topped $5,000 for about25 percent of insured respondents, according to the Kaiser/Timesstudy.

Gap coverage trails out-of-pocket inflation

The Kaiser/Times study showed that 39 percent of thosestruggling with medical expenses had coverage through a workplaceplan. While the precise types of plans and coverage were not brokenout, the study did identify what it classified as high-deductibleplans ($1,500 for an individual, $3,000 for a family).

Nor did the study track the prevalence of such savings optionsas HSAs or respondents’ experience with worksite voluntary productslike critical illness.

So, could affordable savings plans and voluntary options helpreduce the number of insured Americans struggling to payout-of-pocket medical bills?

Benefitfocus, a cloud-based benefits platform used by more than700 large employers, may have the answer to that question.

In its recent inaugural report on the state of employeebenefits, data mined from the firm’s participant base showsthat neither employers nor workers are using voluntarybenefits as much as they could.

Only 36 percent of large employers offer just one voluntaryoption. And only 8 percent offer a package of critical illness,hospital indemnity, and accident insurance.

When such coverage was available, only 14 percent of employeesenrolled in one voluntary product; just 1 percent enrolled inthree.

The slow adoption of voluntary coverage comes as more employersoffer high-deductible plans. Pricewaterhouse Coopers says 25 percent ofemployers are now offering high-deductible plans as the sole optionfor workers. And Benefitfocus says 52 percent of largeemployers now offer a high-deductible plan as an alternative to atraditional plan. When given the choice, 41 percent of employeeschoose a high-deductible plan.

Yet doing this may result in more insured Americans’ exposure toout-of-pocket duress, as the average deductible for family planscan swell beyond $4,000.

Herein lies the opportunity to communicate the value ofvoluntary benefits – a task that is not without its challenges,according to Benefitfocus’ researchers.

“We have a long way to go,” they said.