As Virus Spreads, Insurers Exclude Ebola From New Policies

"Probably the biggest issue coming up is business interruption," said Tony DeFelice, managing director of Aon Risk Solutions' national casualty practice in the United States.

A business interruption could be anything from the loss of key employees to sickness to the quarantine of an airliner or cruise ship used by a suspected patient suffering from Ebola or any other serious infectious disease.

But many property and business interruption (BI) policies are triggered only by direct physical damage to property, insurance broker Marsh wrote this month in a note on Ebola.

"This means that without special provisions -- for example, manuscripted wording to broaden coverage -- healthcare providers' property insurance and BI policies would likely not be triggered based solely on the presence of Ebola," Marsh said.

Miller Insurance Services LLP and William Gallagher Associates last week launched the first product to insure hospitals against losses from any shutdown made necessary by Ebola quarantine, teaming up with Lloyd's of London underwriter Ark Syndicate.

More could follow. Aon Plc has created an "Ebola task force" to monitor the outbreak and help clients prepare for potential risks.

JLT's Flynn said the cost of insuring an event against Ebola would be about triple the amount of normal cancellation insurance, if the venue was in a region not known to be affected by the virus.

He said organizers would pay about 0.1 percent of potential revenue from an event for insurance excluding Ebola coverage. Including Ebola, the cost rises to about 0.3 percent.

No events have yet been canceled in Britain or the United States as a result of Ebola; only three cases have been diagnosed in the United States to date, and none in Britain. But concern has been growing, and Ebola has moved to the forefront of the U.S. election campaign.

The U.S. government said on Tuesday that travelers arriving from any of the three centers of the outbreak, Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, must fly into one of five airports that have enhanced screening in place. Britain is also screening arriving air and rail travelers.