Unvaccinated? Don’t Count on Leaving Your Family Death Benefits - https://t.co/qykubg85EY
— Mike Walgenbach (@mwalgen44) January 17, 2022
Thank you to G. Edward Griffin.
Some life insurance companies are denying full death benefits to the families of people who died from Covid-19 because they refused Covid-19 experimental vaccines. Certain front-line workers have been considered eligible for accidental death benefits because they are presumed to have gotten sick on the job, but the benefits may be denied if they didn’t follow established safety protocols, which may include Covid-19 vaccines. Now that vaccines are widely available, some employers have considered limiting other benefits paid to unvaccinated workers, including reducing short-term disability payments.
These days, workers who refuse to get vaccinated against covid-19 may face financial repercussions, from higher health insurance premiums to loss of their jobs. Now, the financial fallout might follow workers beyond the grave. If they die of covid and weren’t vaccinated, their families may not get death benefits they would otherwise have received.
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority no longer pays a $500,000 death benefit to the families of subway, bus and commuter rail workers who die of covid if the workers were unvaccinated at the time of death.
“It strikes me as needlessly cruel,” said Mark DeBofsky, a lawyer at DeBofsky Sherman Casciari Reynolds in Chicago who represents workers in benefit disputes.
Other employers have similar concerns about providing death or other benefits to employees who refuse to be vaccinated.
In Massachusetts, the New Bedford City Council sought to extend accidental death benefits to city employees who died of covid, but the mayor didn’t sign that legislation because, among other things, it didn’t prohibit payment if the worker was unvaccinated.