Insurers can't refuse coverage due to travel

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners today revised its Unfair Trade Practices Model Act to keep life insurers from refusing coverage based on customers’ future travel. Specifically, the NAIC’s Life Insurance and Annuities Committee unanimously agreed that future travel cannot be the basis for a coverage decision unless actuarial principles or experience show that travel to a particular place at a specific time would create a risk of loss that’s greater compared to the risk for people who don’t travel to that place at that time. Carriers may refuse or limit coverage if the client is traveling someplace where the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an alert or a warning, or in a location where there is an ongoing armed conflict involving a foreign army. The proposed revisions will now move up to the NAIC’s executive committee and plenary for final approval.