INSURANCE FIRMS FROWN ON TRAVEL TO ISRAEL

BUT WILL THEY INSURE YOU IF YOU TRAVEL TO LONDON?

Insurance Firms Frown on Travel to Israel - Jim DeFede
Earlier this year, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz wanted to increase her life insurance. Her husband, Steve, received a phone call from their insurance agent, asking if his wife was planning any trips. ''There is a possibility she might go to Israel,'' he said. Two weeks later she received a letter from the American General Life Insurance Company: "We were unable to approve the policy because of potential travel to Israel."

Wasserman Schultz said she was dumbfounded. ''To put Israel in the same category as Iraq is nothing short of discrimination,'' she said. ''Their death rate through intentional injury is actually lower than the U.S.,'' she said, citing a recent Business Week article that noted there were 17 homicides per 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2002, compared with just 11 in Israel. (Miami Herald)