Life Insurance for People With HIV

Not too long ago, potential customers with HIV were perceived as pariahs by insurance companies. With life insurance now available to those who have contracted the virus, has this perception changed?

In July 1997, Impaired Risk Specialists of Glenview, Ill., started offering life insurance to HIV positive people across the country. Underwritten by Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Co. of Illinois, Impaired Risk Specialists did extensive research on the mortality statistics for people diagnosed with HIV. Now a subsidiary of Guarantee Trust Life, Impaired Risk Specialists caters to clients with severe medical and emotional conditions, disabilities, foreign residences, and those with a history of substance abuse.

Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Co. is licensed in all states except New York, and in Puerto Rico.

Any restrictions?

Impaired Risk Specialists won't insure every person with HIV. To be insured, a person with HIV must meet the following criteria: the person must be between 21 and 49 years old; be able to work; lead an active life; and meet certain medical conditions, including having a limited amount of the virus within their bloodstream. Impaired Risk Specialists does not insure people who have developed full-blown AIDS.

The manner in which a potential policyholder contracts the virus affects a person's eligibility for the insurance. Impaired Risk Specialists only sells policies to those who contract the virus through sexual contact or by an accidental needle stick. Impaired Risk Specialists sees risk levels for those two groups as lower than that of an intravenous drug user. The coverage does not extend, though, to someone who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion.

While Impaired Risk sets premiums higher for HIV-positive people than for healthy people, they aren't the company's highest. For example, policyholders who have had a double-lung transplant have higher premiums than those with HIV.

The same variables that affect a healthy person's life Insurance premium also affect people who are HIV positive: their age, whether they smoke, and their gender.
Since HIV treatments have progressed and lengthy remissions are more the norm, Impaired Risk Specialists continues to monitor the relevant research and says it will adjust their premiums when research warrants it. Premiums won't drop with each new medical advance, however.

Other insurers shy away

Most life insurance companies don't sell policies to people who have the virus. Inquiries to MassMutual, MetLife, New York Life, and Northwestern Mutual Life all produced the same answer: We don't sell policies to people with HIV. An agent for one of those companies stated that the insurance companies just don't see HIV positive people as an acceptable risk.

The companies don't single out just those with the virus. Other terminal illnesses also scare off major life insurers. Most life insurance companies will not sell life insurance to a person who contracts Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's disease, or cancer.