OTish: The insurance clock is ticking on football

[QuantumMechanic]

The NFL no longer has general liability insurance covering head trauma, according to multiple sources; just one carrier is willing to provide workers' compensation coverage for NFL teams. Before concussion litigation roiled the NFL beginning in 2011, at least a dozen carriers occupied the insurance market for pro football, according to industry experts.

The insurance choices for football helmet manufacturers are equally slim; one helmet company executive said he was aware of only one. Pop Warner Little Scholars, which oversees 225,000 youth players, was forced to switch insurers after its longtime carrier, a subsidiary of the insurance giant AIG, refused to provide coverage without an exclusion for any neurological injury.

"People say football will never go away, but if we can't get insurance, it will," Jon Butler, Pop Warner's executive director, lamented to colleagues after discovering that just one carrier was willing to cover the organization for head trauma, according to a person who was present.

Dr. Julian Bailes, Pop Warner's medical director and a member of the NFL's Head, Neck and Spine Committee, told Outside the Lines "insurance coverage is arguably the biggest threat to the sport."

OTL: Football facing growing insurance issue

 

[luuked]

Only a question of time until more rule changes will be added trying to keep things rolling. With the potential pitfalls of a new CBA coming up soon as well things look bleak.

 

[BTTA]

When insurance carriers start to give you instructions on how to run your business...

 

[signbabybrady]

Can't they just pay out their own claims?

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Can't they just pay out their own claims?

Most companies that self insure do so because it saves them money vs. premiums, or it helps provide better programs to retain employees. With free agency, I would imagine the later isn’t an issue

 

[venecol]

When insurance carriers start to give you instructions on how to run your business...

Didn't read the article but not sure not wanting to provide coverage is giving instructions. Insurance companies have bailed out of hurricane coverage in Florida also. I hate insurance companies but they are there to make money. Can't blame them since CTE is real and football hits cause it. Their actuaries must of run the numbers and realized there was too much risk.

 

[Dr Pain]

Yea I would not insure them either

 

[ALP]

When insurance carriers start to give you instructions on how to run your business...

insurance carriers can decide to cover whatever they damn well please

your business can take it or leave it, and if it can't function without out, tough luck to your business

 

[BTTA]

Didn't read the article but not sure not wanting to provide coverage is giving instructions. Insurance companies have bailed out of hurricane coverage in Florida also. I hate insurance companies but they are there to make money. Can't blame them since CTE is real and football hits cause it. Their actuaries must of run the numbers and realized there was too much risk.

insurance carriers can decide to cover whatever they damn well please
your business can take it or leave it, and if it can't function without out, tough luck to your business

Yes, all true, and not relevant to my point: this shift in the marketplace will cause the insurance industry to become more heavily involved in how football is played, who plays it, and the rules that govern it.

When your commercial insurance premiums and risks run into seven figures and higher, the insurers have a lot to say about how you run your enterprise. They provide detailed instructions on how certain tasks are to be done, such as cleaning, and transportation, and security. They do background checks on your employees in critical positions. They get involved in product design. They send out inspectors to make sure you are complying with their instructions. And a host of other things.

I'm not taking an evaluative position on this, or the insurance industry, or insurance at all. I'm just noting one of the inevitable outcomes of the insurance market shrinking for football. The insurance market for football is unlikely to disappear, because the marketplace doesn't like a vacuum for very long; it'll just continue to get more expensive and involved.

And yeah, actuaries will be involved with the design of football equipment and the language in the rules.

 

[venecol]

Yea I would not insure them either

But NFL fines T Brown for rocking the cradle push.

 

[jah]

insurance carriers can decide to cover whatever they damn well please

your business can take it or leave it, and if it can't function without out, tough luck to your business

Spoken like a true insurance racket shill.

 

[jimnance]

Can't they just pay out their own claims?

No disrespect, man, but you're not grasping just how much $ is involved.
There's no NFL team, not Jerrah, not anybody, that can stay in business w/o insurance.
We're not talking millions- we're talking billions of dollars of risk per team.
Insurance companies used to fight over football business, whether NFL,college,hs or youth.
But since the class action suit over cte, they have all pulled out and there's now only one company providing insurance for the NFL. And they have ridiculously high deductibles. They call the shots not the NFL.
It's a much worse problem in college on down. A lot of small colleges,hs and youth football had to give up football, just became too expensive. It's scary. And it's real.

 

[BTTA]

No disrespect, man, but you're not grasping just how much $ is involved.
There's no NFL team, not Jerrah, not anybody, that can stay in business w/o insurance.
We're not talking millions- we're talking billions of dollars of risk per team.
Insurance companies used to fight over football business, whether NFL,college,hs or youth.
But since the class action suit over cte, they have all pulled out and there's now only one company providing insurance for the NFL. And they have ridiculously high deductibles. They call the shots not the NFL.
It's a much worse problem in college on down. A lot of small colleges,hs and youth football had to give up football, just became too expensive. It's scary. And it's real.

Do you know how much of the increase in cost is insurance premiums?

 

[raduray]

If you were an insurance company and saw the NFL institute and publicize new helmet hit rules and then saw the NFL gradually decrease their enforcement as the season went on, why would you want to insure for head trauma.