From the beginning of the pandemic, coverage for business interruption claims or lack thereof has been one of the largest issues for businesses that were forced to close under government order. The claims in large part are not covered due to a variety of reasons, primarily lack of physical damage to property or virus exclusions. The industry has advocated from the beginning that pandemics are similar to terrorism or flood, cannot be properly rated at a reasonable cost to insureds, and need to be handled by a federal solution.

Businesses are losing an estimated $1 trillion a month because of the disruption, yet the insurance industry collects $4.5 billion a month for all commercial properties. Even if all those premiums were for business interruption coverage, the industry falls short by $995 billion dollars monthly. The insurance industry would be destroyed in the first month, leaving everything uninsured. 

At the outset a number of ideas were proposed, including a Pandemic Reinsurance Act, which would create a reinsurance program similar to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act; a COVID-19 Business and Employee Continuity and Recovery Fund providing assistance directly to businesses, a revision of TRIA to include pandemics, and others discussed here: Will there be a Pandemic Version of TRIA?