Travel insurers could make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory

While vaccination of EU citizens is expected to start before the end of the year, the Commission is planning to have 200 million citizens vaccinated by September 2021.

In April 2020, SchengenVisaInfo.com had reported that once the vaccine is available, travellers would be obliged to get vaccinated in order to be eligible to enter the EU countries. An EU official had confirmed that once the Covid-19 vaccine is confirmed and available for all, visa applicants would also be required to be vaccinated in the future.

If the EU obliges travellers to vaccinate, travel insurance providers may refuse to cover those who decline to have the vaccination.

If EU makes vaccines mandatory, travel insurers will likely follow suit

In an exchange of emails with SchengenVisaInfo.com, Elvio Chilelli at insurer Europ Assistance said that, currently, vaccination is not a requirement for the EU and thus not a requirement for purchasing their policies.

However, Chilelli noted that if the EU makes vaccination obligatory for travellers to be eligible to enter its territory, then Europ Assistance would update its policies in compliance with the EU regulations.

French insurer AXA also plans to refuse coverage to those who have not taken the vaccine if the EU Member States make it obligatory for travellers.

“It is likely that countries are going to require people to have had the vaccine to enter. Therefore, if customers haven’t been inoculated, they will not be covered,” the company predicts.

However, if the EU does not impose such a requirement, then AXA will also cover travellers who are not vaccinated. “If there is no requirement from the entering country, we cannot enforce that people have had the vaccine – as customers may not have had the opportunity to get one,” a spokesperson of the company said.

In the UK, two-thirds (65 per cent) of Brits are prepared to take a Covid-19 vaccine that has passed all necessary tests, if it means they can travel internationally.