Home insurance claims for swine flu? Not so fast

An article last week in National Underwriter, an insurance trade publication, warned that home insurance companies should expect to be hit by a wave of liability claims from policyholders being sued over the swine flu.

The thinking is that if you have a cocktail party and a guest contracts swine flu from your sick child, you’re liable for medical bills. Or, if a child come to your house for a play date and catches swine flu and dies, you’re on the hook. Liability claims like this would fall under home insurance coverage.

I checked with some of my insurance company sources, and they turned out to be quite dubious about this. The sticking point is this: Someone would have to prove that your household was the sole source of exposure for the H1N1 flu.

They would also have to show economic damages (i.e. medical bills).

While your pal may suspect they got swine flu at your house and be mad about it, a successful claim against you would be quite unlikely. The person would have to prove that they had no other exposure to H1N1, which is remote at best.