Benefits help provide workers with income protection as financial and mental health pressures mount
COLUMBUS, Ga., August 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Aflac, a leading provider of supplemental health insurance products in the US, today announced the launch of enhanced Aflac Individual Short-Term Disability Insurance to help employers better support the changing needs of their valued workers in amid economic uncertainty and enduring pandemic challenges. The company’s income protection insurance product provides policyholders with a source of monthly income when a mental health condition or other covered injury or illness leaves them unable to work.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, 21%, or nearly 53 million US adults, experienced mental illness in 2020, and 46% of adults with mental illness received treatment.1 They continue to report that severe mental illness causes 193.2 billion dollars in lost profits each year.
“Today, more Americans are facing challenges that, in the past, may have received less attention, but in the wake of the pandemic it is increasingly clear that mental health is a top concern for our customers,” said the Vice President of the US Aflac. Virgil Miller. “That’s why Aflac is growing its offerings in the mental health space to provide solutions for consumers looking to protect not only their physical health, but also their emotional well-being.”
Aflac’s Individual Short-Term Disability Product is a workplace benefit that can help protect the overall physical, financial and mental health of an employer’s workforce. With a variety of options, employees can tailor coverage to their specific needs and budgets so they can focus on recovery and return to work rather than financial stress.
“Disabling events and conditions that prevent people from working and generating income are more common than many think,” it said. Kim Rudeen, vice president, Aflac Product Development and Management. “When a disability leaves a person unable to earn a living, increased out-of-pocket expenses can quickly strain their finances. In fact, 1 in 3 workers (36%) couldn’t last more than a month without a salary. , which is a high degree of fragility.”3
Highlights of Aflac’s enhanced short-term disability product include:
- Extended coverage for disabilities caused by common mental health conditions, including but not limited to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, eating disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorder of substances and alcohol.
- Extended coverage with no increase in rates for policyholders.
- Optional riders to help further strengthen income protection coverage.
For more information visit Aflac.com/business.
ABOUT AFLAC INCORPORATED
Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) is a Fortune 500 company that helps provide protection to more than 50 million people through its subsidiaries in Japan and the US, paying out quick cash when policyholders become ill or injured. For more than six decades, the insurance policies of Aflac Incorporated subsidiaries have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the US, Aflac is the number one provider of supplemental health insurance products.4 Aflac Life Insurance Japan is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance in Japan, where it provides for 1 in 4 families. In 2021, Aflac Incorporated was proud to be named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for the 16th consecutive year. Also in 2021, the company was included in the Dow Jones North American Sustainability Index and became a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). In 2022, Aflac Incorporated was named to Fortune’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies for the 21st time and to the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index for the third year in a row. To learn how to get help for expenses that health insurance doesn’t cover, visit us at aflac.com or aflac.com/español. Investors can learn more about Aflac Incorporated and its commitment to ESG and social responsibility at investors.aflac.com under “Sustainability.”
Media contact: Jon Sullivan706-763-4813 or [email protected]
Analyst and investor contact: David A. Young706-596-3264, 800-235-2667 or [email protected]
1 National Alliance on Mental Health (2022). Mental health statistics. Accessed July 20, 2022from https://www.nami.org/mhstats.
2Integrated Benefits Institute (2019). IBI series of comparative analyses: Which diagnoses drive STD incidence, costs, and lost time? Access from https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/8926463/Resource%20Assets/Benchmarking%20Analytics/IBI-Benchmarking-Analytics-STD-condition-drivers.pdf.
3 Aflac (2021). Aflac 2021-2022 Workforce Report. Accessed July 5, 2022from https://www.aflac.com/docs/awr/pdf/2021-overview/2021-aflac-awr-health-wellness-power-benefits.pdf
4 LIMRA US Total Supplemental Health Insurance Market Report 2021.
SOURCE Aflac Incorporated
