Life insurers view on HIV/Aids challenged
July 18, 2019
Jason Myers, NZ AIDS Foundation CEO, has stated that AA’s life policy clause excluding HIV/Aids related deaths is discriminatory. He continues by stating that it is an outdated view. Mark Savage, AA Life General Manager, has said that AA needs to exclude conditions or lifestyle factors that the underwriting process will not give them enough information about. But Myers argues AA's rationale doesn't make sense, as heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes and stroke are among the diseases most likely to kill New Zealanders, but they are not excluded. Click here to read more.
I suspect that this is really an historical issue. When HIV/AIDS was really an unknown, it was excluded because no one really knew how bad the disease could become, across the population as a whole. New Zealand is fortunate that measures to contain the spread have been successful, and measures to prevent transmission have kept the number of cases low, and the impact on people with the disease manageable. It also means that the impact on death rates is negligible. That means that some insurers - such as AIA, for example - feel comfortable enough to include cover for HIV even in their medical insurance contracts.