Voya joins ACLI comment letter on tri-agency proposal for Supplemental Fixed Indemnity Health Benefits and Short-Term Limited Duration Insurance

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading health, wealth and investment company, announced today that it has joined a comment letter submitted by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) regarding proposed regulations issued by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury. The proposed rules would redefine how Short-Term Limited Duration Insurance, Hospital Indemnity Insurance and Other Fixed Indemnity Insurance qualify as Excepted Benefits under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Voya supports the departments’ desire to protect consumers from mistakenly buying limited insurance policies marketed and sold as comprehensive healthcare coverage. The proposed rules, however, go beyond that important goal and unnecessarily reduce the scope and coverage of certain group supplemental health products, particularly hospital indemnity and other fixed indemnity policies, which provide valuable financial support to consumers when they need it most.

“As a company, Voya fully supports ensuring that consumers understand the products and solutions they purchase to support them and their family’s health needs,” said Rob Grubka, CEO, Workplace Solutions for Voya Financial. “However, like many group benefits providers, we believe that — if enacted — the proposed rules would reduce the types of supplemental health offerings available to employers today — or potentially make them much less cost effective.”

Group supplemental health products, such as those offered by Voya, are marketed and sold to employers and their employees, who value the products as an essential part of their employee benefits in addition to, and not as a substitute for, comprehensive healthcare insurance. They have become an increasingly important tool that employers make available to their employees to help defray healthcare-related expenses not covered by their healthcare insurance. As a result, these policies have received a growing interest from both employers and employees alike; according to Voya research, more than half (56%) of working Americans are more likely to stay with their current employer if provided with access to voluntary benefit offerings like critical illness, hospital indemnity, disability income and accident insurance.¹

“As more employees have come to rely on these solutions, adding barriers to employers offering these solutions could ultimately deprive those employees of financial-protection products to protect their households from unexpected financial shocks,” added Grubka.

The comment period for the proposed rules closed Sept. 11, 2023. Federal regulators will review comments and consider whether to adopt the rules in whole or in part, revise them or abandon them altogether.

As an industry leader focused on the delivery of health, wealth and investment solutions to and through the workplace, Voya is committed to delivering on its mission to make a secure financial future possible for all — one person, one family, one institution at a time.

1. Voya Financial Consumer Insights & Research survey conducted June 12-13, 2023, on the Ipsos eNation omnibus online platform among 1,004 adults aged 18+ in the U.S., featuring 483 Americans working full time or part time.

About Voya Financial^®

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), is a leading health, wealth and investment company with 7,200 employees who are focused on achieving Voya’s aspirational vision: Clearing your path to financial confidence and a more fulfilling life. Through products, solutions and technologies, Voya helps its 14.7 million individual, workplace and institutional clients become well planned, well invested and well protected. Benefitfocus, a Voya company, extends the reach of Voya’s workplace benefits and savings offerings by providing benefits administration capabilities to 16.5 million individual subscription employees across employer and health plan clients. Certified as a “Great Place to Work” by the Great Place to Work^® Institute, Voya is purpose-driven and committed to conducting business in a way that is economically, ethically, socially and environmentally responsible. Voya has earned recognition as: one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies^® by the Ethisphere Institute; a member of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and a “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” on the Disability Equality Index. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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