Life Insurance for HIV Positive People

Life insurance is an essential cover that takes care of your family when you are no longer around. Apart from the benefits to your loved ones, life insurance is also necessary if you want to access a large amount of credit like a home loan. However, being HIV positive means that you may not qualify for conventional life insurance. Fortunately there are now products specially designed for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Terms and Conditions of HIV Life Cover

Insuring a person who is HIV-positive is a significant risk to the insurer. Even if your CD4 count has been stable for a while and you have been fairly healthy for months, the fact that you are HIV-positive means that there is a greater chance that your policy will be cashed in than a person who is negative. Testing positive on an HIV  test means that your insurance policy may be declined.

With a life cover specifically designed for people living with HIV/AIDS, you can rest assured of cover despite your status. However, these policies do have certain terms and conditions that you will need to be aware of.

With HIV life cover, you will need to have a CD4 count and sometimes even a viral load test every 6 months. The insurer may then require that you commence with ART (anti-retroviral therapy) once your CD4 count falls below 200 cells/mm3. Your viral load may also be taken into consideration.

Failure to commence with ART as required by your insurer may mean that your policy will lapse and you will no longer be covered. This could jeopardise your credit agreement with your financial institution.

HIV Positive After Insurance Test

If you become HIV-positive after you qualify for life cover, the terms and conditions of HIV life cover may not be relevant. Insurers take into consideration that any person who is healthy at the time of being covered may fall ill with any medical condition, not only HIV.

For this reason insurers reassess your policy after a designated time of period to ascertain whether the risks have changed. This could mean that you will not qualify for a policy renewal and will then have to apply for other types of life cover, like HIV life cover. Alternatively your insurer may spike the monthly premiums.

Cost of HIV Life Cover

HIV life cover is more expensive than life insurance for a person who is negative. However the launch of new financial products that specifically cater for people living with HIV/AIDS has controlled the costs and HIV life cover is now affordable.

For a few hundred rand extra per month, you can rest assured that you will be covered and that your family will be taken care of after your death. In addition, it allows you to apply for credit that requires security through financial products like life cover.

Applying for HIV Life Cover

Up until recently, only a few insurers would cover HIV-positive people. These days more companies are offering these type of  policies and you can speak to a broker or deal directly with the insurance company. After providing you with a quote, you will be required to undergo a CD4 cell count test. Once the insurance company processes your application and it is accepted, you will be covered from the day of inception.