What happens when insurance companies decline to cover losses due to a pandemic?

What happens when insurance companies decline to cover losses due to a pandemic?

Transcript¹

Throughout the pandemic, music venues³ have had to close across the country. Many owners believed their business insurance would help. But, it turns out, their policies weren't designed for COVID-19.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Disruptions in the live music industry throughout the pandemic have been hard on both performers and on the owners of the venues where they play. Many believed their business insurance would help them weather the storm. But Darian Woods and Sally Herships from our economics podcast The Indicator⁴ took a closer look, and they found that those policies weren't designed for COVID-19.

SALLY HERSHIPS, BYLINE⁵: Summer Gerbing owns the Ivy⁶ Room. It's an independent music venue² in Albany, Calif. So when you and I, Darian, walk into a place like the Ivy Room, we're, like, checking out the music, maybe thinking about getting a drink. But as a business owner, when Summer looks around, she is thinking...

SUMMER GERBING: There's liability every time I'm looking out on the floor. You know what I mean? There's always something that I'm like, liability, liability.

DARIAN WOODS, BYLINE: Summer wanted to be a responsible business owner, and she wants to make sure the Ivy Room was covered.

GERBING: Absolutely. You have to get insurance. It is so crucial. You have to protect your business.

WOODS: If anything happened, the Ivy Room was covered. Then the pandemic hit.

HERSHIPS: Summer had about 25 employees, and she was worried about them. They needed their paychecks. But she thought she had that business interruption insurance. So she put in a claim. And about a week later, her claim was denied.

GERBING: I was disappointed, of course, but I wasn't shocked.

WOODS: Still, Summer wasn't going to give up. California had basically ordered her business to shut down, so Summer felt like her business interruption policy should have covered her. So she contacted a lawyer.

GERBING: We did. We thought that we have to fight for our business.

WOODS: Sarah Cronin is an entertainment lawyer in LA, and part of her job is handling what's called insurance recovery work.

SARAH CRONIN: ...Which are disputes with insurance companies where we represent the policyholder.

HERSHIPS: Like the lawsuit⁷ that Summer contacted her own lawyer about. It became a class-action suit, asking for millions in damages.

WOODS: Insurance policies with all that small print can be complicated. Insurance works by spreading risk, but when you have a catastrophic event, everyone is affected⁸, so you can't spread the risk.

HERSHIPS: And that's why pandemic coverage⁹ in particular is so rare. It's just too much to cover. One representative of the insurance industry wrote me in an email. To the extent any pandemic insurance was available before COVID-19, it was limited, expensive and rarely purchased.

CRONIN: Now, with event cancellation¹⁰ insurance, every insurance company throws on a communicable disease exclusion¹¹ so that there would not be coverage.

HERSHIPS: No pandemic coverage. Let's say you're a live events venue. Now if there is a spike¹² in the pandemic, you cannot get any insurance coverage. Sarah says there have been some small procedural victories for businesses suing their insurers, but the vast majority of decisions have been in the insurance company's favor. And that's what happened to Summer. Her lawsuit took a year, and she lost.

WOODS: Summer found a way to make it work. She joined a group of thousands of other small venues that formed a national association, and they lobbied Congress and got up to $15 billion in grants. And that's just one of the ways that Summer says she's managed to stay afloat. She says that grant she got will give her a cushion to keep going for a year or two. The Ivy Room is back up and running. The staff is wearing masks, which Summer hopes will make everyone feel safe. And she's still signed up for insurance, although it doesn't include pandemic insurance.

Darian Woods.

HERSHIPS: Sally Herships, NPR News.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

3 venues   

n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 )；会场；（尤指）体育比赛场所；犯罪地点

参考例句：

• The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
• Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角，有长800米，宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网

4 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。

7 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

8 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

9 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

10 cancellation   

n.删除，取消

参考例句：

• Heavy seas can cause cancellation of ferry services.海上风浪太大，可能须要取消渡轮服务。
• Her cancellation of her trip to Paris upset our plan.她取消了巴黎之行打乱了我们的计划。

11 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

12 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。