As Canada deals with the COVID-19 outbreak, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) has announced that insurers have confirmed that commercial truckers who hold travel health insurance policies on an individual basis will not lose coverage when entering the United States.

“Measures announced today will allow insurers to take steps so that routine exclusion clauses tied to a Government of Canada ‘Avoid non-essential travel’ advisory will not apply to those employed as commercial truckers,” said the association, which represents insurers, in a March 25 statement.

Last week, life and health insurers clarified that out-of-country medical coverage would continue uninterrupted for commercial truckers covered by workplace, or group insurance policies.

The CLHIA said the situation was less clear for truckers holding individual insurance as the insurers generally do not classify individual travel health policies by employment category.

“As a solution, insurers will be asking those with individual coverage to identify themselves as a cross-border commercial trucker at time of claim. Those purchasing new policies will similarly be asked to identify their trade at time of purchase,” said the CLHIA.

These changes apply to all individual out-of-country travel insurance policies containing the specific exclusion for “Avoid non-essential travel” federal travel advisories. However, the CLHIA says that those holding policies with a pandemic exclusion should contact their insurance provider for additional details.