Life Insurers Fight Social Media Vaccine Disinformation

What You Need to Know

• Some social media posts state life insurers classify getting a COVID-19 vaccine as a hazardous pursuit.
• One claim is that life insures will not pay benefits to those who receive the vaccine and die.
• The ACLI says getting the vaccine will have no effect on U.S. life insurers’ benefit payments.

(Article reprinted from ThinkAdvisor.com: Life Insurers Fight Social Media Vaccine Disinformation)

To combat a negative social media campaign against the COVID-19 vaccination program, the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) is pushing the message: Getting a COVID-19 vaccine will have no bearing on whether a U.S. life insurance company will pay a policyholder’s life insurance claims.

Last week, for example, one such Twitter post, by someone who identifies appears to be a resident of Germany, stated that people may not be able to collect on life insurance if they’ve engaged in “hazardous pursuits … like taking experimental vaccines.”

Another post, by someone who identified himself as a man living in Europe, said he had called his life insurer and was told “that they do not cover any injury or complications from any Covid-vaccine.”

Paul Graham, senior vice president for policy development at the ACLI, said the idea that a COVID-19 vaccine could be a factor in a U.S. life insurance claim determination is entirely false.

“The fact is that life insurers do not consider whether or not a policyholder has received a COVID vaccine when deciding whether to pay a claim,” Graham said in the statement.

“Life insurance policy contracts are very clear on how policies work, and what cause, if any, might lead to the denial of a benefit. A vaccine for COVID-19 is not one of them. Policyholders should rest assured that nothing has changed in the claims-paying process as a result of COVID-19 vaccinations,” he stated.