Stride Post Latest News
Related Articles
SciCheck Compendium
Insurance companies don’t deny claims when someone dies after getting vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the industry trade association the American Council of Life Insurers. But a message that has gained wide circulation on social networks erroneously claims that the beneficiaries of a person who died after receiving the vaccine cannot receive life insurance payments.
How do we know that vaccines are safe?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorization to three vaccines against COVID-19, and more than 163 million people in the United States (nearly 50% of the total population) had received at least one dose of the vaccine as of May 25. (Read the SciCheck articles on each of the vaccines: “ A Guide to Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine,” “ A Guide to Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 Vaccine, ” and “ Guide to the Vaccine of Johnson & Johnson against COVID-19” ).
Despite these figures, and creating consternation in the US insurance industry, a virtualized message on Instagram has spread the fallacy that beneficiaries cannot collect the life policy corresponding to people who have died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
The message, posted by user texas seceded, reads: “My friend’s aunt recently died due to the COVID vaccine. They were denied life insurance because she… voluntarily she was given an EXPERIMENTAL drug.”
We were unable to determine the veracity of parts of that message: that someone’s aunt died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine or that there was no payment to a life policy for some reason. But the suggestion that there will be no payout to a life policy solely because of the vaccine is false.
The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), which represents 280 companies with 95% of the assets of the insurance industry in the United States, has rejected similar false allegations since March, it told us in an email Whit Cornman, ACLI spokesperson.
“The truth is that companies that offer life insurance do not take into account whether the owner has received a COVID vaccine when deciding whether to pay a claim,” said Paul Graham, vice president for policy development at ACLI, in a statement that He emailed us on May 21.
“Life policy contracts are very clear about how the policies work and what causes could cause a claim to be denied. The COVID-19 vaccine is not one of them,” Graham said.
According to the consumer organization United Policyholders, there are several reasons a life policy can be denied payment, such as lying about health status on an application or if a policyholder dies within the first two years of entry into the term of the policy, known as the period of acceptability.
“Life insurance policies are contracts that specifically state the obligations and rights of the insurance company and the insured,” Dave Wood, chair of insurance at the Jones School of Business at North Carolina State University, told us in an email. Downtown Tennessee. “Some may limit the cause of death to certain causes (for example, accidental death or cancer), but traditional policies do not limit the cause of death. Exceptions include suicide if it occurs within the first two years of policy issuance and war under some older policies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has received unverified reports of at least 4,600 deaths in people vaccinated against COVID-19 through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System ( VAERS) an alert system to detect problems with the safety of vaccines administered by the CDC and the FDA.
As we have reported, multiple social media posts and websites have incorrectly cited raw VAERS statistics as proof that approved COVID-19 vaccines cause deaths and serious problems. But anyone can submit a notification to VAERS, regardless of whether or not a vaccine caused the problem.
“A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy reports, and medical records, did not establish a causal relationship to COVID-19 vaccines,” the CDC said. “However, recent reports are indicating the possibility of a causal relationship between the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine and a rare and serious adverse reaction—blood clots with low platelet counts—that have caused death.”
As we have published, reports of an unusual clot condition, mainly in women under 50 years of age, led the FDA and CDC on April 13 to recommend “a pause in the use” of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine “as a measure precautionary”.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, attached to the CDC, voted April 23 to resume the use of the J&J vaccine with a warning that it can cause blood clots. As of May 24, health agencies had identified a total of 32 cases among more than 10.2 million J&J vaccines administered. According to the CDC, as of May 7, there have been three clot-related deaths.
ACLI’s Graham told us in an email on May 24 that while the agency has had to correct false information about insurance coverage before, it can’t recall an allegation similar to the fallacy posted on Instagram.
“What worries us about this falsehood is that it could confuse some consumers and make them doubt our commitment to policyholders and their families,” he said. “Life policies are there to financially protect families if the unthinkable were to happen.”
As for the vaccine, Graham said people should get it.
“Insurers that offer life policies encourage all policyholders to maintain healthy lifestyles and habits, and taking preventive measures against COVID-19 is no different,” he said. “What matters most to us is that policyholders know that nothing about claims processing or our commitment to them and their families has changed as a result of the vaccine.”
Translated by Luis Alonso Lugo.
Editor’s note: The SciCheck Vaccination/COVID-19 Project is made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Foundation has no control over our editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation. The goal of the project is to increase access to accurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines and reduce the impact of misinformation.
Will I be charged for the vaccine?
No. You should not pay any out-of-pocket costs or receive a bill from your provider or the vaccination center. This is true for people who have private health insurance, Apple Health (Medicaid), or Medicare, or who don’t have insurance.
If you get other services when you go to the provider’s office to get your vaccination shot, you may get a bill for the visit. To avoid this, you can ask the provider in advance what the cost will be.
