There are a few basic truths underlying the popularityof voluntary benefits;affordability is one of them, along with understandability andprocessing ease. For an employee, voluntary plans are easy to applyfor, to qualify for, and to pay for. For an employer, there islittle work beyond allowing enrollment and handling the payrolldeduction process.

However, for various reasons, HR benefits managers may have themistaken belief that voluntary benefitplans are expensive — possibly dating back topricier products that have been sold in the past. This happened tous recently. One of our brokers passed along a message froman HR benefits manager whoasserted their employees making $12 to $15 an hour “should not beoffered voluntary benefits because they cannot afford them.” Thiswas the reason given for not allowing some eligible employees toattend our group meetings. Meanwhile, the employer had no life ordisability plan for these employees.

We helped our broker by providing a simple analysis of theaffordability of our product package. The employer made assumptionsabout the costs, thinking we’d hit people up for too much money.So, we shared a few examples to make a point about affordability(these are actual prices for the members — most insurance companieswill have similar, not identical, prices).