SALT-MEERSTAD – People who say they are sick with certain diseases can jump in front of the queue for a COVID-19 vaccine. If that person shows up to get their chance, no one is going to ask for evidence. It’s all about the honor system, state and county health officials in Utah said.
But even if there are no legal consequences, people who lie can be punished. The KSL investigators found that there could actually be a financial penalty for lying about getting sick to get a vaccine.
When you tell a health department in the province that you have a coherence, it creates a health record. And health records are a favorite tool for insurance companies when trying to determine if your life insurance is worthy.
“If it’s in your medical records, the life insurance company will make it true,” said Brian King, a lawyer who specializes in fighting life insurance companies to get them paid.
King said a serious medical condition listed in health records could mean anything from paying more for life insurance to not being eligible for life insurance at all. It can even excuse a life insurance company from not paying your family after you die.
“People don’t think about it,” King said. “They are not thinking about their future. They are looking at the immediate need or desire that they should jump in and be vaccinated sooner rather than later. It can come back and really bite you.”
(People) do not think about their future. They look at the immediate need or desire to fit in and vaccinate sooner rather than later. It can come back and bite you very hard.
–Brian King, Attorney
Utah director Norm Thurston, R-Provo, during his time on the hill, worked on many insurance-related laws. He saw how it can be incredibly expensive in a person’s medical records.
“Insurance companies regularly request medical records,” Thurston said.
Thurston said that people regularly lie on their life insurance applications to keep premiums low – for example, claiming that they do not smoke when they do. It would be the opposite – lying about being sicker.
Thurston said the area is a bit unfamiliar and that time will tell how many life insurance companies rely on medical records created to make vaccinations when determining a customer’s risk. But he agreed with King that it is conceivable that it could cost a person’s insurance.
“If someone writes on the form, ‘I have diabetes,’ or ‘I have uncontrolled blood pressure,’ the form will set a record and the life insurance company can get one,” Thurston said.
Of course, medical records are not public records, and health departments will not share them with life insurance companies without the consent of a patient. But a life insurance company may refuse to insure the patient if they refuse to give permission to view medical records.
“We expect people to be honest,” Salt Lake County Department of Health spokesman Nick Rupp told KSL TV, though he knows the expectation is a bit up in the air.
The province encountered liars even before the criteria were expanded to enable people with certain disease conditions to get the vaccine in Utah.
“We had a few people who had already lied through the system about their date of birth to be eligible sooner than they should have been,” he said.