Martes, 03 Marzo 2020

The immunity of travel insurances against Coronavirus

VolverSince 31 December 2019, when the Chinese Government informed of the clustering of 27 cases of a pneumonia with a so far unknown aetiology, with the outbreak in the city of Wuhan, the number of patients has not stopped growing.

Despite the infection, caused by a Coronavirus identified by the global health authorities as COVID-19, not seeming to be extremely deadly (if it is compared to other infectious diseases, such as Ebola, SARS or MERS) the severe impact in the public health and the significant risk of international spread have led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare on 30 January the public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

Although the newly onset and the rapid spread of infectious cases in Italy have sharpened the concerns of the international health organisations, the WHO resists to classify the outbreak as pandemic. However, and even though institutions try to avoid any description that may instil more fear, few doubt that we face an epidemic.

The fear of contagion in the countries with declared outbreaks has led to cancel many travels or to exercise caution in the event of an unavoidable trip.

If we look through travel insurance policies that are marketed in the insurance market nowadays, we will see that virtually all of them cover the following events (among others): flights cancellation, health assistance in the destination country and repatriation.

However, any of these coverages would automatically be excluded if the events arise from “epidemics, pandemics or quarantines.”

Thus, we could affirm that the coverage is excluded at the time that the disease was declared epidemic.

In any case, we cannot forget the inability of insurance companies to guarantee the compliance with their policies, when countries like China have imposed measures aimed at limiting trips, either by imposing movement restrictions or by closing businesses. In short, announcing a quarantine would rule out the repatriation of insured persons (or assisting them by sending a specialised medical team).

CONCLUSION

The spread of this new viral outbreak has led the different international and State organisations to impose strict health controls at borders that prevent per se the free movement of persons, which together with declaring this disease as “epidemics”, has caused the cancellation of travels or the isolation abroad of citizens, who could not return to their place of origin.

The development of the so-called COVID-19 has meant that many persons consider applicable the coverages in their travel insurance policies (flight cancellation, health assistance or repatriation); however, the coverage limitations within the current terms and conditions of travel insurance policies allow to rule out that the claims for expenses arising from epidemics, pandemics or quarantines may be covered by current policies.

We understand that the unclear progress of the epidemic and, especially, of its potential consequences (operating losses, loss of profits…), does not provide the insurance companies with the sufficient security to include this type of claim into the traditional coverages of travel insurance policies.

In any case, at Belzuz Abogados, S.L.P. Insurance Law Department, we recommend checking the travel insurance policies in those cases when traveling to any country with COVID-19 outbreaks is unavoidable, keeping in mind government (e.g. Spain) recommendations, entailing the recommendation of not to travel to China; in this scenario, the State wouldn’t be liable of any damages to persons or goods as a consequence of your trip.

Departamento de Derecho del Seguro | Madrid (España)

 

Belzuz Abogados SLP

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