HIV-positive people will be able to purchase life insurance
For the first time since the start of the AIDS epidemic, people living with HIV will finally be able to purchase life insurance coverage. The momentous change comes thanks to a partnership between Prudential Financial, Inc. and ÆQUALIS.
The announcement was made Wednesday, the day after World AIDS Day, and represents a shift in the insurance industry’s attitudes towards the science surrounding HIV and its manageability. People who are HIV-positive will now be eligible to obtain convertible 10- and 15-year term life insurance products, provided they meet some underwriting qualifications. Convertible policies can be altered to cover a person’s entire life span.
“As medical technology advances, we continuously evaluate and update our underwriting criteria, which has resulted in our ability to offer insurance to people dealing with various medical or chronic conditions,” Mike McFarland, the chief underwriting officer for Prudential Individual Life Insurance, said in a statement. “With advances in the successful treatment of people with HIV, we are now able to offer this population the opportunity to apply for life insurance — a milestone we see as a significant step in the right direction.”
ÆQUALIS will provide consumers with information about the policies available to them and help with the application process. The founders of ÆQUALIS, Andrew Terrell and Bill Grant, both lost people close to them to the AIDS epidemic and have ties with people currently living with HIV. As a result, they formed ÆQUALIS with the intent of changing how the insurance industry treats people with chronic conditions like HIV.
“Our relationship with ÆQUALIS is another way we are extending our reach into underserved markets,” McFarland continued. “We’re passionate about our efforts to offer this community a way to help achieve their financial goals through the protection life insurance offers.”
According to Kaiser Health News, HIV-positive people cannot currently buy individual life insurance policies beyond those that offer scant coverage. Meanwhile, the life insurance industry provides coverage for people with other chronic diseases, such as cancer or Hepatitis C, but charges them a higher price. As such, it is likely that Prudential’s proposed coverage plans will mean higher premiums for HIV-positive people. Still, most HIV/AIDS advocates are praising the move as a good first step to ensuring HIV-positive people can obtain some form of life insurance.
“Finally, an insurance company has realized that this is the right thing to do and that it is profitable from a business perspective to offer this product to people living with HIV,” said Scott Schoettes, HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal. “Now that there is one company out there doing this, it will encourage others to do the same when they see that there is money to be made in this market.”
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