Some employers are considering denying life insurance death benefits for UNVACCINATED employees

[ffr]

Some employers are considering denying life insurance death benefits for unvaccinated employees who die from COVID

In the US, President Joseph Biden's federal vaccine mandate has received resistance and was temporarily blocked. Meanwhile, some employers, like New York's MTA, are considering denying death benefits from life insurance to unvaccinated employees who die from COVID.

Echo Huang, founder of Echo Wealth Management, said that it seems like current developments are directed towards employees in "dangerous" jobs and would impact accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) benefits provided by employers.

Huang said that most employer-provided AD&D plans have strict guidelines for eligibility and those requirements can change if the employer deems it unsafe for the work environment.

According to Kaiser Health, in the instance of NYC MTA workers, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, "transit officials and the labor unions representing employees reached agreements that workers who died of COVID-19 would be eligible to receive a $500,000 lump-sum death benefit, just like payments to which families of MTA workers who have other job-related deaths are entitled."

The program was at the beginning of the pandemic when a vaccine didn't exist. When the FDA approved COVID vaccines, "the MTA Board determined that, starting June 1, workers who died of COVID had to have been vaccinated for their families to be eligible for the payment." - Business Insider

[70sEraVet]

1. In other words, they won't cover the pre-existing condition of DUMBASS!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

2. Good. They shouldn't get a benefit that was instituted to cover front line workers BEFORE ...

… there was a vaccine.

The same should go for unvaccinated cops claiming on the job injury/disability/death.

[Aristus]

3. I'm can't believe I'm siding with the greedy, soulless corporations.

But since it's against stupid, thoughtless, selfish anti-vaxxers, I guess it's cool.

Anti-vaxxers can now bleat all they want about 'cancel culture' or what the fuck ever. But private corporations, especially insurance companies, always look to maximize profits and minimize risk. Anti-vaxxers are taking unnecessary risks with their heath and lives, and the health and lives of others.

So, suck it, anti-vaxxers!...

[Johnny2X2X]

4. A very conservative coworker said to me

A guy I consider a mentor, he's brilliant, but quite conservative, although I am sure he's not a Trumpster. I am in aerospace engineering, we're really short on engineers right now, we've got a vaccine mandate per the Federal guidelines and I was ruing that we might lose a good number of really good engineers. We have 1,000 engineers at our site and losing just 50 (which is what the guess is) will have a big effect considering we're already short 180.

I brought this up to my mentor, that I am concerned. He said, John, there's an old saying, "when someone shows you who they are, believe them." He explained what he meant, we work on mission critical software for civilian and military air craft, if some engineer doesn't have the good judgement to get a vaccine to protect everyone from a deadly pandemic, do we really want them working here at a place where good engineering judgement can mean the difference between life and death for passengers of planes? Do we want to trust people without enough common sense around something like a pandemic to make critical decisions involving the safety and certification of airborne systems?

The vaccine is a test now, it's a test for whether or not that person is competent and capable enough to hold the job they have. If you're so stupid and gullible as to fall for the anti vax nonsense, you're basically unemployable in a lot of industries. Someone who is that gullible shouldn't have most jobs. I don't want someone that stupid doing anything important, and if I was a business owner, I wouldn't want that person working for me at all. These people have revealed themselves to be too stupid to take a chance on.

While life insurance denial seems cruel, it's totally within the insurance company's rights to deny these claims, these people are choosing to risk their lives, why should our insurance rates go up to pay them out?

[Elessar Zappa]

5. Good post.

Yes, a person who believes the anti-vax bullshit have shown themselves to be too dumb to be trusted in any important position. Hell, I wouldn’t trust them to flip burgers. They might not believe in germ theory and refuse to wash their hands.

[The Blue Flower]

9. Very good argument

Thanks for sharing with us.

[NowISeetheLight]

6. Makes sense

Insurance companies won’t pay if your killed drunk driving too (at least mine won’t). Stupid decisions should not be rewarded.

[RobinA]

7. First They Came

for the Communists...

Very scary.

[Froggyproggy]

8. Slippery slope that's going to open up a lot of litigation.

The problem here is that if not getting the vaccine is considered risky enough to deny benefits, then precedent has been set. Would it be okay to deny benefits for someone that drops dead from a heart attack due to poor diet and lack of exercise? Smokers and alcoholics can obtain life insurance through their employers. You can’t deny one person’s risky decision and accept another. That’s not really fair.

[kcr]

10. Wrong. For one thing, not getting a vaccine

isn't the same as poor diet/lack of exercise if you're going to equate the two based on causation. While there is a correlation, conditions like heart disease and cancer can run in families and afflict people who exercise and eat well, while people who never exercise and eat like crap can live into their 90s. For another, many insurance companies already do deny payouts for risky/bad behavior that is equivalent to not getting vaccines.