I was on the conference call today the UFC held to further discuss their ground-breaking insurance coverage of fighters under contract. It appears I’m not allowed to ask questions on UFC conference calls, so I wasn’t able to fully explore the issue as much as I would’ve liked. Still, here are the details:
UFC Insurance Policy Details Emerge: Notes From Today’s Conference Call
- All fighters under contract with Zuffa, LLC - meaning both Strikeforce and UFC fighters - are covered under the existing policy.
- Details are still somewhat unclear, but this coverage is worldwide. Meaning, fighters who live in U.S. will be covered along with those in Brazil, Canada, Asia, Europe, etc.
- Zuffa is paying 100% of the premiums. The coverage will be up to $50,000 per fighter per year. This includes coverage of anesthesia, physical therapy, surgeries and anything else related to accidents.
- Zuffa brass deny this move has anything to do with undercutting the concept of a union. They argue this process has been in motion for three years, long before there were ever monopolistic concerns.
- Lorenzo Fertitta says this move is coming at a substantial cost to the company. He would not give specific figures.
- The $50,000 figure was arrived as the original benchmark for live event insurance policy.
- This policy supplements the existing live event policy. As a simple explanation: if Shane Carwin gets hurt training, he's covered by the new policy. If Shane Carwin does not get hurt in training, but is hurt during a fight, he's covered under the already in place live event policy.
- When creating the plan, Zuffa brass stated they didn't want fighters to have to haggle with the insurance companies about what injuries were and weren't training related. Therefore, the plan covers all accidents for all fighters under contract.
- A fighter does not have to have a fight coming up or scheduled to be covered. As long as they are under contract with Zuffa, they're covered.
- Zuffa claims by getting insurance companies to look at the costs of insurance for event-related claims. This process reportedly demonstrated to the insurance companies that, generally speaking, the costs of insuring fighters was not nearly as onerous as they had assumed.
- Part of the reason why Zuffa is working with Houston Casualty is their high rating. For more on the rating of insurance providers, check out A.M. Best.
- The insurance policy won't cover problems like the common cold, but would for sprained ankles. The UFC could not state definitively whether something like staph infection would be covered, but they believed it would be.
- The dental coverage is identical to the larger policy, meaning teeth cleaning is covered, but a chipped tooth as a consequence of training would be.
- The policy also offers life insurance in the event of catastrophic injury in pre-fight training.
- The UFC said they had no figures on the number of fighters currently without insurance who are under contract with them.
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