"Pandemics Are Fundamentally Uninsurable Events"

I.I.I.’s FAIR campaign will serve as an educational resource for the media, business community, and broader public. In the coming weeks, FAIR will actively engage in a number of insurance and pandemic-related developments across the country.

The establishment of FAIR comes as more consumers, lawyers, legislators, and even local governments are calling for insurers to honor business interruption insurance claims.

Read more: Insurance broker hit with lawsuit over coronavirus exclusion clause

“FAIR was created to safeguard the ability of the insurance industry to support its customers at a time when policymakers, the business community, and the general public are searching for solutions to our ongoing economic turmoil,” explained I.I.I. CEO Sean Kevelighan.

Kevelighan added that while the insurance industry recognizes the need for financial relief during these difficult times is severe, “any attempts to make insurers retroactively responsible for a global pandemic puts the solvency of many insurers at risk.”

“While the insurance industry has been doing its part to step up and support their communities in this time of crisis, pandemics are fundamentally uninsurable events,” the institute’s chief executive said. “The federal government remains the only entity with the financial resources to help businesses recover from a systemic event of this magnitude.”

I.I.I. reported that for this spring, the insurance industry has cumulatively offered consumers more than $10 billion in premium relief on auto insurance. The industry has also made more than $220 million in charitable donations to pandemic-related causes.