OMAHA, Neb.–The coronavirus of the past 18 months has exposed a broad swath of financial weaknesses among many consumers, and that includes the kinds of insurance they carry—or have allowed to lapse.
Credit unions, primarily through CUNA Mutual but also through numerous other companies, have a long history of providing various types of insurance to their members, which is why many may want to pay attention to new findings of a survey on the state of voluntary insurance among consumers.
The survey, conducted by Breeze, probed consumers for the types of insurance they carry, including pet, renters, vision, dental, critical illness, flood, or umbrella, as well as the average monthly premium for each product.
In addition, it also sought to break those findings out further by race, state, gender, and generation?
In Breeze's first annual "State of Voluntary Insurance" report, the company said it was seeking to gauge of what protection today's Americans can afford to have through voluntary insurance.
Among the key findings: just three insurance products — health, life, and dental — have an ownership rate over 50%.
The company said two of the most noticeable trends included:
- Only 68% of Black respondents own health insurance, compared to 81% of Latino respondents, 82% of Asian respondents, and 84% of White respondents
- For each and every type of voluntary insurance, male respondents are far more likely to own policies compared to female respondents