Life Insurance Companies Can Refuse To Write Policies For HIV-Positive

In the Spokesman-Review, there was a recent article by Kevin Graman confirming that life insurance companies are allowed to deny coverage to people who have HIV. Insurance regulators in Washington state ruled that Farmer's denial of coverage was not discriminatory. In 2006, a HIV-positive individual was denied coverage from a subsidiary of Farmer's Group, Farmer's New World Life. He then filed a discrimination lawsuit against them with the Insurance Commission. While insurers are legally permitted to deny someone coverage if they are considered too risky to insure according to sound actuarial data, human rights activists believe that Farmers routinely declines to write policies for this group because of outdated statistics.

Kevin writes that ever since anti-retrovirals have dramatically increased the life expectancy of the HIV-positive, it is considered by many to be a risk that could be insured. A Swiss study found that patients with HIV but without hepatitis C have short-term mortality rates similar to successfully treated cancer patients. Cancer patients whom have completed treatment are able to buy life insurance policies.