Insurers to cover truckers
Truckers got confirmation last Thursday that their group health insurance will cover them if they contact COVID19 while in the United States.
“Today, after hearing from its members, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association has confirmed that commercial truckers with group insurance coverage will continue to have coverage for emergency out-of-country medical expenses as they bring goods across the US-Canada border,” read a statement from the industry association.
Last week, the Canadian
Life and Health Insurance Association had not been able to confirm that truckers would be covered if they got sick while delivering and picking up goods south of the American border. That’s because provisions in some group and workplace health insurance plans include an exclusion when a federal nonessential travel advisory has been issued.
Earlier in the week, William Gerhardt, owner of Lunenburg-based Gerhardt Trucking, had been informed by his broker that his drivers would not be covered if they contracted COVID-19 while travelling in the United States.
“The insurance companies are not looking hard enough in the mirror,” said Jean-Marc Picard, executive director of the Atlantic Provinces
Trucking Association on Wednesday before the issue was resolved. “To throw us a curveball like that, seriously?”
With some of the major warehouses supplying essentials to Atlantic Canadian grocery stores located south of the border, truckers continue to risk exposure the pandemic which has spread through all 50 American states. Many have to pack food for multiple day trips and do not have the opportunity to shower until they get home.
Truckers have told the Chronicle Herald that once home they are faced with difficult decisions about whether to go into their houses and risk exposing their families to the COVID-19 virus.
“The commercial trucking industry is providing crucial services to support Canadians with goods at all times, but particularly now,” said Stephen Frank, president of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, in a written statement.