Does COVID vaccine affect life insurance?

Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine won’t affect your life insurance. It won’t prevent you from being able to apply, you won’t be rejected for it, and companies aren’t going to withhold your policy’s death benefit or payout in the event of your death. If that’s true, then where did this rumor come from?

Like a lot of terrible things lately, it came from social media. A video from America’s Frontline Doctors, a right-wing political organization, has been circulating since March 16, 2022 on social media sites. The primary claim is that a life insurance company denied the payout of a French businessman because he received the vaccine. The company declared the vaccine a “medical experiment” not covered by the policy, and, supposedly, a French court agreed. The video even goes on to say that the ACLI (American Council of Life Insurers) “may deny payments if you die from the COVID-19 vaccine because they are experimental drugs.”

*groans*

Ok. These claims have been rejected by the French government, the ACLI themselves, and various life insurance companies. There are no records of such a case coming before French courts and the ACLI released a statement that receiving the COVID-19 vaccine does not affect life insurance claims. Again, does COVID vaccine void life insurance? No, it doesn’t. This is, unfortunately, another case of misinformation being shared quickly and in a way that can have lasting repercussions.

Percentages of US population vaccinated

Does being unvaccinated affect life insurance?

If getting the COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t affect life insurance, what about being unvaccinated? At least 78% of the US population is partially vaccinated, meaning they’ve gotten at least one dose. But there are plenty of people who don’t want the vaccine. Does being unvaccinated affect their life insurance?

We’re writing this in the middle of 2022, and from our vantage point, it mostly depends on the insurance company and the method of insurance. For example, New York City’s MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) has declared they will not pay out the $500,000 death benefit to MTA workers who refuse to get vaccinated and die of COVID-19-related complications. Other life insurance companies such as Momentum Metropolitan and Old Mutual have begun asking customers to provide proof of vaccination during the application process.

But again, it depends on the insurance company you might apply with. Due to COVID-19 being seen by some insurers as a “short-term mortality event,” they may or may not implement new rules or make a distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated applicants. In either case, it’s important to stay educated on what rules your life insurance company is implementing.

Vaccination, life insurance, and the future

Why would some life insurance companies think about changing their rules? Well, the global life insurance industry saw reported claims due to COVID-19 rise to $5.5 billion in just the first nine months of 2021. For reference, there were $3.5 billion reported claims for the whole of 2020. Add in the fact that we’re still in the early stages of understanding long-COVID, both the health effects it leaves people with and the financial costs for policyholders and companies.

As the pandemic continues, we’ll see what changes it brings. The important part is to keep yourself educated by checking out credible sources of information. Institutions aren’t perfect, but there’s a reason many of them possess a level of authority. Social media posts and conspiratorial videos aren’t accountable to anyone, so they can say anything to get you riled up. We know you do your research when trying to find a life insurance company that you can trust, should the worst happen. You should do the same thing when you come across a social media video that’s too good to be true. They often are.