Anthem, a giant major medical issuer, put some of its enormous marketing muscle behind the Disability Insurance Awareness Month campaign in May.
Mike Wozny, the president of the Indianapolis-based company's Anthem Life unit, said in a recent interview that he thinks this is a great time for insurers to be telling distributors and employers about the importance of protecting their income.
In the past few years, he said, talk about the Affordable Care Act seemed to crowd out most talk about benefits products other than major medical coverage.
This year, he said, "it feels like there's more oxygen in the room. There's just more room for that conversation."
Wozny has been involved with group disability insurance since 1990, when he was product development manager at a unit of Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co. He came to Anthem from a unit of Seattle-based Premera Blue Cross in 2014.
He serves on the Disability Task Force at America's Health Insurance Plans.
He has been enthusiastic supporter of disability awareness month efforts at both Arlington, Virginia-based Life Happens and the Portland, Maine-based Council for Disability Awareness.
People don't really realize the risk of disability is as high as it is," Wozny said.
Lines burring
Many employers are offering disability insurance on a voluntary basis, meaning that the employees choose whether to pay for the coverage, and that means that educating consumers themselves about the need for income protection is critical, Wozny said.
