I should preface this post by telling you that I’m a bit of a hypochondriac. I haven’t had this confirmed by a psychiatrist or anything, but germs and maladies sincerely freak me out. So as you can well imagine, the prospect of the bird flu hitting the U.S can easily turn me into a ball of stress if I think about it too long.

It must have other people freaked out too, because I’ve seen an increase in blog posts and articles about the prospect of avian flu insurance. And now, a small Canadian insurance company plans to offer the coverage as soon as this summer.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that Mint Canadian Specialty Underwriters will sell bird flu insurance policies to businesses to help companies “cope with an outbreak of any infectious disease”. The insurer also sells similar policies for other pandemics, including the mumps (which as recently made a comeback in the Midwest.)

The policy would allow businesses to collect a daily allowance to cover rent, payroll or any other business expense. The company plans to start offering the coverage in June.

Now, hypochondria and all, I’m a little skeptical of this and other types of avian flu insurance in North America.

Here’s why.

While I’m all for preventative measures, bird flu insurance seems to be jumping the gun a little bit. Insurance companies in China and Vietnam (to name a couple) are offering various types of bird flu coverage, which makes sense to me as they’ve had enough outbreaks to warrant coverage.

But offering bird flu insurance in North America before we’ve even been hit seems to affirm the fact that yes, it’s coming, and we should all be terrified. And living in fear, frankly, isn’t living. I’m also not sure I like the idea of insurance companies profiting off of that fear–especially if the pandemic never reaches us here in the states.

I have similar unfavorable thoughts about ABC’s upcoming made-for-TV movie Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America, but maybe I’m being hypercritical.

What do you think? Would you purchase bird flu insurance if your insurance agent could sell it to you? Or do you think this coverage precipitates a fearful environment in the US? I’m interested to hear your comments.

[Thanks to the Insurance Coverage Law Blog (again) for the link.]