Voya’s State of Employee Benefits 2026 research shows that mental health sits right at the center of employee well-being. Employers rate mental health support among the highest impact benefits they can offer, and employees increasingly see mental and emotional well-being as fundamental to how they show up at work and engage with their benefits.
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The need is widespread. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year. And mental well-being disrupted by stress, anxiety or emotional strain can heavily influence broader healthcare engagement. When needs go unmet, employees are more likely to delay care, tune out benefits or struggle to manage health events effectively.
Why do I care so deeply about this? Because I live it. I’m the parent of a 16-year-old who has faced clinical anxiety and depression for much of her life. Like many families, we’ve struggled with access, timeliness and the cost of care — spending thousands each year on evaluations, psychiatry and counseling. And I work in this industry — so imagine the barriers for the average American.
Bottom line: Mental health isn’t a “nice-to-have” anymore. It’s a business imperative.
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Why mental health benefits make business sense
Employers see what’s at stake. Our research shows that 91% of employers say mental health support and resources have a positive impact on employees’ overall well-being. But beyond employee health, mental health parity has direct, practical implications for employers.
Mental health becomes a workforce continuity issue when challenges surface longer leaves, delayed recoveries and more complex return-to-work experiences — making mental health a key driver of absence management, disability outcomes and workforce stability.
And with increased regulatory oversight, mental health parity laws require mental health benefits to be no more restrictive than medical or surgical benefits — accompanied by increasing scrutiny on how plans handle access, networks and treatment limits. For example, under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), off-exchange plans and Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs) have effectively standardized mental health coverage. Parity has moved from intent to execution. Employers are being asked to show that mental health support is meaningfully accessible — not just technically covered.
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Access is still the biggest gap
Despite rising awareness and investment, access to mental health support remains uneven. Voya data shows that employees report persistent barriers when seeking mental health and well-being services due to:
Lack of local providers with availability (22%)Cost constraints or lack of affordable options (22%)Services not covered or out of network (20%)Difficulty scheduling appointments (20%)
And those barriers don’t show up evenly. Women, younger generations and individuals with disabilities are more likely to report challenges related to provider availability and affordability, according to Voya. For employers, the takeaway is straightforward: Access must be treated as an experience, not just a line item.
But benefits only create value when employees can find them, trust them and use them. This gap between importance and usability is where many benefits strategies fall short. That means easy navigation, clear guidance and communications that reduce stigma and remove uncertainty about where to start.
Some of the biggest roadblocks to benefit adoption are attention and time. A 2023 Voya poll showed that 67% of employed, benefits-eligible Americans spend less than 30 minutes reviewing benefits information during open enrollment. When decisions are made quickly, the “front door” to mental health support must be clear, intuitive and reinforced year-round — not buried in lengthy materials or explained only once a year.
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Seven questions to help turn parity into progress
Mental health parity is no longer measured by what’s offered, but by whether employees can realistically use it. For organizations looking to stay ahead, the most important work now sits at the intersection of financial protection, benefit design and decision quality.
Do you know whether employees are actually using your mental health value-added benefits — or simply enrolled in them? Utilization reports by benefit type (e.g., caregiving, child care, financial literacy, bereavement services) can reveal navigation gaps or awareness opportunities. Are mental health copays and coinsurance aligned with medical copays and coinsurance? Does your benefits administrator factor mental health costs into Flexible Spending Account (FSA)/Health Savings Account (HSA) guidance? Do you offer mental health benefits across all providers in one place? Single sign-on and unified navigation can help to significantly increase awareness and utilization. When an employee takes a mental health–related leave, do you have a structured return-to-work program? Do you offer HSAs, FSAs, and/or supplemental health insurance benefits? Are you helping employees understand the average cost of mental health care and helping them plan for any out-of-pocket expenses. Have you evaluated whether emerging models, such as ICHRAs, could expand access without increasing cost?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, consider speaking with your broker or carrier about how to enhance your benefits strategy — often with little additional investment.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and it’s an opportunity to move beyond conversation and toward action. The organizations that succeed will be those that treat mental health parity not as a compliance exercise but as a core part of benefits strategy and workforce support.
That’s when parity becomes more than policy. It becomes progress.