The policies may have been cancelled, but the Players’ Association is working to bring it back.
This week, the NHL Players’ Association made insurance news by informing its members that it would be paying for the restoration costs of all of the coverage that the league has cut off from the players and their families following the week before last.
Players’ Association members, including Sidney Crosby, were cut off by the league on Monday.
A memo from the NH
LPA explained that “NHL has instructed the insurers to cancel all insurance coverage, effective September 16, 2012. This includes Medical and Dental coverage for Players and their families, Disability insurance, Life and Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance, and Spousal Life insurance.”
The memo made insurance news as it identified the criteria for continued coverage eligibility.
It explained that all of the players who had not yet signed with another league as a free agent, or who had not yet retired would continue their eligibility for coverage, provided that they also meet a minimum of one of the following criteria:
• Have a 2012-2013 season NHL standard players contract (SPC), but have been locked out of that team and are not playing on another professional league during that same season.
• On the active roster for at least 70 regular season NHL games during the 2011-2012 season.
• Played at least 160 regular season NHL games, including those games when dressed as a backup goalie.
The memo also made insurance news by letting the players know that it the association had already arranged to boost the benefits for career ending disabilities, so that they would cover the amounts that the players had seen under the policies that were cancelled by the NHL.
The payout for disability will be anywhere from $75,000 to $370,000, depending on the age of the player. The memo does caution the members of the NHLPA that the association doesn’t actually cover the player contract, which is a significant issue among those who would typically go to play in Europe.
Its latest insurance news stated that it is the players, themselves, who are responsible for making sure that they have coverage in that circumstance, either through their team or personally, in order to cover the NHL PSC value.
