Massachusetts Could Require Insurance Companies to Cover Business Losses Caused by COVID-19

Joshua M. Bowman, chair of the firm’s Hospitality Practice Group, was quoted in EATER Boston on April 1, 2020. The article, “Massachusetts Could Require Insurance Companies to Cover Business Losses Caused by COVID-19,” explains Bill SD.2888, which would require insurance companies in the state to provide business interruption insurance to policyholders whose businesses have been negatively impacted by COVID-19. If enacted, the bill, filed by Massachusetts state senator Jamie Eldridge, would require insurers to cover losses due to COVID-19, limited to the monetary limit of each individual policy, for businesses that employ 150 or fewer full-time workers.

Read the full article at EATER Boston.

From the article:

“’All this bill is designed to do is use the insurance industry as conduit for a government stimulus bill,’ said Josh Bowman, an attorney whose clients include a number of restaurant owners in Greater Boston and who helped Eldridge craft Bill SD.2888. ‘We used the banks as conduit for a federal stimulus — what’s wrong with using the insurance industry to bail out restaurants?’

… ‘The insurance battle is the one we need to ignite because it solves the most problems for operators,’ said Michael Scelfo, who owns a trio of restaurants in Cambridge, who is represented by Bowman, and who also supports the bill. ‘If you calculate all of the monthly and quarterly insurance premium payments over the life cycle of business, we’ve all paid multiple times over what a normal business interruption claim would look like. So when we need it, it should be there.’

…’My priority today is making sure my staff is able to eat and survive,’ said Andy Husbands, another supporter of the bill. He owns the Smoke Shop BBQ restaurants in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, and he is also represented by Bowman. ‘And my longterm strategy here is to make sure the businesses survive.’”