- Posted by Admin on November 19, 2009
I concluded my last blog by observing that
unforeseen and often emotional issues can blow up and potentially cause major
loss events not anticipated or priced into the rates by homeowners insurers. As if to make my point, an article in a
recent trade magazine quoted a malpractice defense attorney as saying that
swine flu just may be one of those unforeseen, emotional events. If it is, I suspect it got a boost from a
willing media, but first, little background.
The Centers for Disease Control estimate that
we have on average around 36,000 flu-related deaths per year in this
country. That figure was based on a
study from the 1990-91 through the 1998-99 flu seasons, during which time the
number of seasonal flu-related deaths varied from around 17,000 to around
52,000. An updated study conducted this
year with data from 1993-94 through the 2002-03 flu seasons didn’t change the
numbers significantly – the average was 36,171 annual flu-related deaths. The point of this is that flu has been only
slightly behind auto accidents in terms of the number of deaths for which it is
annually responsible on average – before
swine flu entered the scene.
Swine flu is unique in that it is a virus
against which humans have not developed a natural immunity defense. Thus it has spread relatively unimpeded, and
pandemics are declared on how they spread – not on the severity of the
disease. I recall a discussion last
spring where a prominent official not beholden to political correctness advised
an alternative term be used other than pandemic. His point was that as soon as the government
used that term and it was picked up by the media, a general panic would ensue
that would not be supported by the severity of the actual disease.
That’s pretty much what’s happened. Like any other flu, people have become very
ill from the swine flu, and people have died.
Nothing in this article is intended to diminish the anguish associated
with this. CDC numbers show that hospitalization
rates for regular flu are pretty much the same as those for swine flu,
though. Local reports show anecdotally
that people are going to the hospital with self-declared swine flu, but who
prove to have either the regular flu or even the common cold. If this event had been handled with less
hysteria by the media – less emphasis on the dramatic headline-grabbing but not
necessarily key facts, and more on the key issues that may be less sexy from a
news standpoint, I suspect the public wouldn’t be quite so fearful or quick to
believe they are suffering from the disease.
This brings me to back to the original topic
of this article – the impact on homeowners insurance. I took the above detour to highlight that
what is going on this flu season is pretty much business as usual with one
twist – awareness drummed into us by a hyperactive media, and given a boost by
a government wanting us to believe there was a monumental problem they alone
could solve.
What is the unintended consequence of all
this? With awareness comes blame! Things that have been going on forever and
accepted as a part of life suddenly are being called foreseeable events that
could have been prevented. That’s a
lawyer’s turf! Thus, as was discussed in
the article I referenced in my opening paragraph, suits could arise for such
things as hosting a cocktail party when your kid is sick, or for failing to
inoculate your kid, who proceeds to get sick and pass the illness to another child.
To prove his point, the author cited an actual
case in New York where the family of a school principal has brought a $40
million suit against the city of New York, claiming the Board of Education
failed to alert the principal that he had been in contact with children who had
tested positive for the virus (I will refrain from any obvious editorial
comment about someone whose chosen profession puts him in contact with
thousands of children every day!), failing to provide a safe working
environment, and several other quite obvious charges. Surprisingly, failing to advise him that
breathing could be hazardous to his health was not among them, although this
may have fallen under “health condition information,” which was included in the
charges.
Regardless of the merits of a lawsuit, though,
it costs an insurance company real dollars to defend its insured against any suit. With the public whipped up to such a fever
(no pun intended), I suspect the author is correct that it is only a matter of
time until such suits hit homeowners insurers, if it hasn’t happened
already. Are the circumstances any
different than they were last year, or any other year? No, just the awareness and the fear
factor. That’s enough for the legal
community to figure this has now moved into its playground. When that happens, they generally are more
than ready to play.
By the way, I came down with something the day before writing this, and it developed into an infection of some sort. However, it hasn’t occurred to me to sue anyone. I called my doctor, got an antibiotic for the infection, and am monitoring how I feel. Isn’t this how we used to do things in this country – take personal responsibility? For those of you who are concerned, though, I have been assured that I cannot infect the electrons that flow from my computer to the website where this article will be posted, and thus I am maintaining for my homeowners insurer that anyone who reads this and proceeds to get ill must have been infected elsewhere.