New COVID-19 variant could cause summer surge
A new round of COVID-19 variants are putting health officials on high alert, especially with summer quickly approaching.
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The claim: COVID-19 vaccine recipients will pay higher rates or even be ineligible for life insurance
A June 30 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) casts doubt on the eligibility of people who received COVID-19 vaccines to get life insurance.
“You watch life insurance trends,” a man in the video says. “What you’re going to find is if you are vaccinated, you can get preferred, not super preferred coverage. If you were vaccinated and double boosted, you may be able to get standard coverage; you will not get preferred. For vaccinated and triple-boosted, you won’t be able to get standard coverage; you’ll be table-rated. If you’re quadruple-boosted, you will not be able to get life insurance.
The post was shared more than 800 times in a week and a half.
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Our rating: False
There’s no evidence life insurance rates or eligibility are affected by getting COVID-19 vaccines. There’s no data to show COVID-19 vaccines are causing harm, which would be needed for them to affect life insurance rates. In fact, industry experts said taking preventative measures recommended by health officials is usually helpful in keeping rates down.
Vaccination status not considered in setting rates
The COVID-19 public health emergency ended in 2023, but the disease did not go away. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommend repeated vaccination against the virus that causes it, and tweaks to the shots are made periodically to target specific strains that are expected to be more prevalent.
While conspiracy theories claim without evidence that the vaccines are actually harming people’s health, life insurance industry experts said there is no reliable data they are aware of to support claim. And without data, people’s rates and eligibility for life insurance would not change.
“Generally, being up-to-date on medical provider-recommended preventive measures, including vaccines, is viewed positively,” Jan Graeber, senior health actuary for the American Council of Life Insurers, told USA TODAY in an email. “Whether four COVID-19 shots alone could be viewed as a negative factor depends on the existence of credible, actuarially sound data supporting this view. ACLI is not aware of such data.”
R. Dale Hall, managing director of research for the Society of Actuaries Research Institute, told USA TODAY he is not aware of insurers even asking individuals about COVID-19 vaccination status when applying for policies. On the flip side, they may ask about existing health conditions that can include an active COVID-19 infection. The society provides analysis for the life insurance industry on individual life mortality rates and causes of death that insurers use to set rates and determine eligibility.
“Our members, actuaries working in this space, noted that some insurance carriers may ask for COVID health status along with any other current medical conditions,” he wrote in an email. “For example, if a person currently had COVID they would list it on their current medical history, and that may lead to postponement of the application for consideration once the applicant recovers.”
Fact check: False claim COVID-19 vaccines are linked to ‘spike’ in cancer cases
Misinformation about the impact of vaccination on life insurance eligibility and rates has circulated almost as long as COVID-19 vaccines have been around. USA TODAY previously debunked a claim that even one dose would make people ineligible for new coverage or payouts on existing policies when the shots began reaching the market in 2021. The American Council of Life Insurers, the Louisiana Department of Insurance and the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner were among the health agencies and insurance industry groups who refuted claims at the time that COVID-19 vaccination would affect coverage.
Western & Southern Financial Group explains on its website that getting a vaccine could indirectly reduce premiums for new customers, even if insurance companies continue to not consider vaccination status on applications. The savings would come by avoiding long-haul symptoms or severe infections, it notes.
USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
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