Aflac shares insights to help employers close the gap with health benefits
Published 10-28-22
Submitted by Aflac Incorporated
By Diana Steinhoff, Senior Vice President, Aflac Dental and Vision
Many organizations put significant time and resources into celebrating and recognizing their Hispanic employees, as well as Hispanic culture and Hispanic Americans’ contributions to society throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. As these celebrations come to a close, it’s important to remember that supporting your Hispanic employees requires being mindful, empathetic and receptive to their needs year-round.
With open enrollment season approaching, one way HR and benefits leaders can do this is by understanding how to talk to Hispanic employees about their health benefits. Tailoring communications, messaging and tactics to what Hispanic employees care about when it comes to their health care is absolutely worth the investment. Hispanics are the most uninsured racial or ethnic group in America;1 18%, or nearly 1 in 5, Hispanic people do not have health insurance, compared to 8.6% of the overall population. My own organization’s research found more than half (65%) of Hispanic Americans could not afford to pay health care costs, compared to 58% of the U.S. general population.
Talking to your Hispanic employees about their health benefits requires understanding of their specific priorities, obligations and pain points. While Hispanic Americans are by no means a monolith, here are some best practices HR and benefits leaders can follow:
Hispanic Americans are the second fastest growing racial or ethnic group in the U.S.3 and the least likely to have health insurance.1 By truly understanding what your Hispanic employees want and need from their health benefits, employers can play an important role in closing this gap.
1Axios (2021). Uninsured rates among Latinos rise accessed on Oct. 5, 2022 from https://www.axios.com/2021/09/18/uninsured-rates-latinos-rise.
2 The Men’s Health Study was conducted online in May 2022 by Kantar Profiles on behalf of Aflac and included a nationally representative sample of 1,001 men ages 18-65. Definitions of the age generations used in the survey: Gen Z — 18 to 24 years; millennials — 25 to 40 years; Gen X — 41 to 56 years; baby boomers — 57 to 65 years.
3 Pew Research (2021). Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group in the U.S. Accessed on Oct. 7, 2022 fromhttps://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/09/asian-americans-are-the-fastest-growing-racial-or-ethnic-group-in-the-u-s
The content herein is provided for general informational purposes and is not provided as tax, legal, health or financial advice for any person or for any specific situation. Employers, employees and other individuals should contact their own advisers about their situations.
Aflac is a Fortune 500 company, providing financial protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. When a policyholder or insured gets sick or hurt, Aflac pays cash benefits fairly, promptly and directly to the insured. For more than six decades, Aflac voluntary insurance policies have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress.
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