Employee Concerns About Contracting Serious Illnesses Spark Interest in Personal Insuranc...(n and 87 percentof women saying they're ...),Health

-- Age groups. There seems to be no major differences between the various age groups, with responses ranging from 81 to 89 percent of employees saying they're concerned about contracting a serious illness.

-- Geographic regions. Employees in the Northeast express the highest concerns (88 percent) with employees in the West expressing the lowest concerns (78 percent).

Employees are interested in buying personal insurance products (or voluntary benefits) at work, in addition to their current health insurance policy, to help cover expenses for cancer or other serious illnesses.

-- Gender. 74 percent of women and 69 percent of men say they'd be somewhat interested, interested or very interested in buying personal insurance products at work to help cover expenses for a serious illness.

-- Age groups. The breakdown among employees by age group shows strong interest in buying personal insurance products at work to help cover expenses for serious illnesses: 18-34, 76 percent; 35-44, 76 percent; 45-54, 66 percent; and 55+, 64 percent.

-- Geographic regions. Employee interest in buying supplemental insurance at work to help cover expenses for serious illness is high in all regions: West, 74 percent; Northeast, 73 percent; South, 72 percent; and Midwest, 67 percent.

Typically, businesses provide core group benefits for their employees, such as health insurance, basic life and long-term disability. However, with employer-provided group coverage, employees who leave the company lose the coverage. Personal insurance -- such as hospital confinement, accident, critical illness or cancer plans, disability coverage and life insurance -- is individual insurance that complements a company's core benefits. "Employees can choose the additional coverage they need and pay for it themselves, or the employer can pay for it," Gilligan says. "Either way, employees own the individual polices the
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