The anti-vaxxer business risk
DORIC WHITE, a senior data specialist at telecom provider Digicel, was reported in this newspaper to have filed a notice in the Supreme Court last Tuesday, seeking an injunction to block his employer’s mandatory vaccine COVID-19 policy.
Mr White is one of several workers who are objecting to the imposition of mandatory vaccination in their places of employment. He is alleging that the policy is in breach of his employment contract and his constitutional rights.
The Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCS)A, the same newspaper said, was engaged in a battle royal over a pandemic-related dispute between some of its members and the Office of the Governor General. The JCSA is awaiting word from the Office of the Services Commission on the employment status of workers at King’s House who were sent home recently on the grounds that they had failed to prove to their employer that they were vaccinated against the COVID-19. The article did not say if these workers were anti-vaxxers.
Meanwhile, in the United States, according to the New York Times, the Biden administration said last Thursday that large companies have until January 4, 2022, to “ensure that their workforces are fully vaccinated under a sweeping new coronavirus health measure that will cover 84 million privatesector workers”. Large companies are those that employ 100 or more persons. Workers who refuse to get vaccinated must undergo weekly testing. Vaccine requirements were previously imposed on federal workers and companies that received federal contracts.
These developments can have farreaching insurance implications. The effects of these workers’ decisions not to get vaccinated are often overlooked until something untoward happens. What would be the situation if Mr White were to become infected or died from COVID19? Would he or his relatives be entitled to receive benefits from any employersponsored health or life insurance plan to which he was a member, or would they remain unaffected by his refusal to get vaccinated? Unvaccinated persons are at a greater risk of getting ill or dying when infected with the virus. Also, is it fair for them to be paying the same premiums as vaccinated persons, or should they be paying more?
Premiums for group health and group life insurance plans premiums are sourced from employers’ funds and deductions from employees’ wages and salaries. In return for paying these premiums, the insurance companies will help fund medical costs incurred by the employees and pay a pre-agreed capital amount in the event of employee’s death.
At the time of writing, it was not clear if local insurers had developed treatment guidelines for persons who have decided not to get vaccinated or to charge extra premiums for new policyholders who are anti-vaxxers.
There is uncertainty in the US about how life insurers treat antivaxxers who die as a result of COVID-19. In some cases, insurers have refused to make payment to beneficiaries where the life insured had died because of the pandemic after refusing to get vaccinated.
A South African insurer decided in July that anti-vaxxers should pay more for life insurance. It said that clients with new policies who indicate that they are unwilling to be vaccinated may be subject to higher premiums and “that the disease is more rampant than was originally projected and the risk is higher”.
A company executive said: “I think we have all seen the devastating effects of COVID-19 from a life insurance perspective ... it has had a huge impact on the mortality … . The good news is that vaccinations work incredibly well. the evidence is compelling. We are seeing about a 95 per cent efficacy rate against hospitalisation of COVID-19. You can almost reduce the risk down to zero. When it comes to insurance, that is powerful. “Vaccinations become a huge risk mitigant ... what we have introduced is the ability to reward clients for being vaccinated. We launched a new offer, which enables new clients who have been vaccinated, or commit to be vaccinated, to receive their maximum possible payback of their life insurance premiums in their first year. On the flip side, those who do not want to get vaccinated, we then reserve the right to potentially load those clients’ premiums based on age and other comorbidities.”
The main purpose of life insurance is to provide a financial benefit to dependants in the event of death. Anti-vaxxers should be aware that they could be unwittingly putting those benefits to their loved ones at risk.