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Grassroots Action Alert

Issued: April 16, 2020

Help to Stop Harmful Business Interruption Legislation

Urgent grassroots action alert: Protect the insurance industry from dangerous overreach. We need your voice!

Harmful business interruption legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. The legislation would require commercial property-casualty policies to include business interruption coverage for “national emergencies,” which would include losses associated with a virus or pandemic.

Regardless of your congressional district, please call Rep. Fitzpatrick’s Washington, D.C. office, Pennsylvania office, or both and leave the following message. (There is a good chance your call will go to voice mail, which works just fine given the unique times we’re in.)

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-8)
Washington, D.C. Phone: (202) 225-4276
Pennsylvania Phone: (215) 579-8102

Your message to the congressman:

“I’m concerned to see that Congressman Fitzpatrick has introduced the ‘Never Again Small Business Protection Act of 2020.’ This works against the goal of aiding small businesses and rebuilding the nation’s economy in the most efficient and effective manner possible. The legislation undermines protections that are in place for the business community, and threatens the very existence of the business interruption insurance market as we know it.”

Background information for you:

The legislation would require commercial property-casualty policies to include business interruption coverage for “national emergencies,” which would include losses associated with a virus or pandemic.

Standard business interruption policies are not designed to provide coverage for viruses, diseases, or pandemic-related losses because of the magnitude of the exposure.

Insurability requires that loss events are due to chance and loss exposures are not too heavily concentrated or catastrophic, which is not possible if everyone in the risk pool is subject to the same loss at the same time.

This would also undermine existing protections for the business community and policyholders against risks that are currently covered under standard business interruption policies.

Insurers do not collect premiums for excluded risks of loss, and forcing insurance companies to pay for losses that were not accounted for and supported by premium will jeopardize the solvency of the insurance system.

Recent estimates show that business continuity losses just for small businesses of 100 employees or fewer could amount to between $220 billion to $383 billion per month.

Meanwhile, the total surplus for all of the U.S. home, auto, and business insurers combined to pay all future losses is only $800 billion.

Questions?

Contact IA&B Government Affairs Director Lauren Brinjac at 800-998-9644, ext. 607.

Why Join IA&B?

One of the biggest resources for you is our staff – consider us an extension of your office. It’s part of the value of membership. When you have a question about coverages, save yourself time and frustration, and contact us first. We exist to help your agency not just survive, but thrive in today’s competitive insurance environment.

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