Executives at Voya said employer interest in stop-loss insurance is strong, even though the company increased stop-loss prices an average of 24% for employers renewing their coverage Jan. 1.
Voya could have even more opportunities to increase stop-loss prices and expand stop-loss profit margins this year, according to Michael Katz, the company’s chief financial officer.
“When you look at the demand, it’s up,” Katz told securities analysts today during a conference call the company held to go over earnings for the fourth quarter of 2025. “Supply is, at best, limited to down.”
Stop-loss insurance helps employers with self-insured health plans protect the plans against catastrophic losses. Voya and other stop-loss issuers have been wrestling with a big surge in claims that came to light in mid-2024.
See also: What’s behind the growing interest in voluntary benefits?
Voya reported that it managed to decrease the ratio of benefits to revenue for its stop-loss business to 96% the latest quarter, from 115.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024. But the latest loss ratio was still far above the company’s target of 77% to 80%.
“We’ve always talked about this being a two-year journey,” CEO Heather Lavallee said of efforts to shore up the stop-loss business. “We aren’t declaring victory. We’re reserving for a wide range of outcomes. But we believe we only have upside from here.”
But Voya stop-loss sales teams have been and will continue to be “highly disciplined on margin over growth,” Lavallee said.
“So, we’re not leading into anything to drive unnecessary growth, just given the backdrop,” Lavallee said.
Two insurers’ execs say employers moving to self-insured plans
Executives at Elevance and UnitedHealth said during their companies’ own earnings calls that they have been seeing employers shifting from fully insured group health insurance plans to self-insured plans with stop-loss protection.
Some employers that have been self-insuring without use of outside protection may also be buying stop-loss insurance.
More employers have been shopping for stop-loss insurance, and that has given Voya “more opportunities to select our risks,” Lavellee said.
Voya reported $149 million in net income for the latest quarter on $2.1 billion in revenue, up from $121 million in net income on $2 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024.
Stop-loss sales increased to $27 million, from $12 million.
Group life and group disability sales held steady at $7 million.
Sales of voluntary insurance products and individual supplemental insurance products marketed at the worksite fell to $11 million, from $14 million.
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