(Jamaica Gleaner) As insurance companies continue to insist that individuals be tested for HIV/AIDS before they qualify for certain policies, the Jamaica Business Council on HIV/AIDS (JABCHA) is urging the providers to offer special coverage for persons living with the disease.
Representatives of insurance companies told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum last week that several reasons prevent them from providing individual coverage to persons living with HIV/AIDS. These include the relatively recent nature of the disease and the refusal of international reinsurers to carry the risk.
“I have challenged the insurance industry to use a product that we have currently to provide coverage for HIV people,” Earl Moore, chairman of the JABCHA told the forum, which was held at The Gleaner’s North Street, central Kingston offices.
He added: “This is radical, but I believe that like how we set Beijing alive and everybody talked about Jamaica, we can do something and let the whole (world follow)“.
Moore, who is also the president and chief executive officer of Guardian Life Limited, said this suggestion was in its preliminary stages.
He told the forum that the five life-insurance companies in Jamaica could create a fund to address the insurance needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
“And we (should) provide insurance at a level which is sufficient to provide burial expenses,” More said.
Forum participant, Catherine Allen, vice-president for actuarial at Guardian Life, said insurance companies consider persons living with HIV as high risk, especially in light of the fact that a number of persons are not even aware that they have the disease.
The Ministry of Health estimates that of the 27,000 Jamaicans living with HIV, some 18,000 are not aware of their status.
Another participant, Orville Johnson, general manager of the Insurance Association of Jamaica, argued that local insurance companies have no option but to test for HIV/AIDS for individual policies.
“Our position as an industry is that we cannot take a position that we won’t test, because of the nature of what we do,” said Johnson.
He argued that while statistics were showing that persons were living longer with the disease, insurance companies were still unwilling to take the risk because they were still uncertain how to price it.
“So we still, where we feel it’s necessary, ask for an AIDS test, depending on the underwriting policy of the respective company,” said Johnson.
“The insurance industry will maintain that right (testing),” he said. While we still look at the numbers, in time it’s going to be the actuary’s call in terms of being able to price the risk when there is enough data available,” Johnson added.
According to Johnson, based on the various group products that insurance companies offer, most persons would be covered without being asked to do an HIV/AIDS test.
