No Life Insurance For You

August 9, 2007 - 11:30 AM by

Thinking of coming to Israel for the holidays this Fall? Do you travel to Israel for business? Or perhaps you’ll be joining your church pilgrimage to The Holy Land for Easter 2008.

If so and if you’re also contemplating starting off a life insurance policy in the United States, you can fuggedaboutit. Not the travel, the policy. That’s because most, if not all U.S. based life insurance companies will not grant policies to customers who have future travel to Israel in their plans.

“More than 200,000 Americans call Israel their home and it’s a shame that the companies are doing this,” David London, Executive Director of The Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel said in response. “Many olim have life insurance policies in the U.S. or have family and friends who want to visit.”

The AACI expressed outrage over news that U.S. insurance companies deny life insurance coverage to Americans who plan to visit Israel or have done so in the past.

According to this Haaretz.com story:

When insurance provider AIG denied life insurance coverage to U.S. Congressional Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, because she announced plans to visit Israel, she went into action. Wasserman Schultz sponsored a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would prohibit discrimination in life insurance coverage related to “future lawful travel.”

Last week, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York introduced similar legislation in the U.S. Senate. “It is just unfair for people to be denied life insurance because they might travel to Israel,” Schumer told the New York Post. Similar bills have been proposed in nine U.S. states.

Stay tuned…

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, Immigrant Moments, Life, Travel 

Comments

4 Comments on No Life Insurance For You

  1. Darnell Clayton on Fri, Aug 10th 2007 7:00 PM

    2. Hey Stephanie,

    I’m in the financial services industry (which includes life insurance) and the “we won’t cover you if you go to Israel thing” is unheard of, at least from products that I have marketed.

    I HAVE visited Israel in the past as well, and I currently enjoy the coverage that I have.

    That said, it seems that AIG’s official policy does not exclude those who travel to Israel, but it may apply to the West Bank and Gaza (which should hold true for just about any insurance provider as you would be entering the territories at your own risk).

    If the Congressional Rep was planning on visiting Palestine as well as Israel, then the company would have merit to deny her. But if it is just Israel proper, then they need to fire the agent who denied her.

    Note: I am not an AIG agent, nor do I market their products. I just see this as highly unusual for the company though.

  2. Stephanie on Fri, Aug 10th 2007 8:56 PM

    3. Darnell:

    Personal experience: Years ago when I was making the move to Israel, this also came up as an issue with my (very large & prominent) insurance company. They said that because I hadn’t planned to go to Israel when I started the policy, they couldn’t cancel it. Had I had plans to relocate at the time of getting started, they’d have never got me going on a policy… slf

  3. Darnell Clayton on Tue, Sep 25th 2007 5:53 AM

    4. Hey Stephanie,

    I was unable to locate an email address to notify you about this, so I’ll post it here.

    It looks like the US House has just passed a measure banning this practice. Details can be found over here:

    http://www.isragood.com/2007/09/congress-rebukes-anti-israel-insurance.html

    ~Darnell

  4. Stephanie on Thu, Sep 27th 2007 1:36 AM

    5. Thanks, Darnell! I’ll post this. Good news!

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