life assurers to drop AIDS exclusions Life insurance obtain to order in disease the for tested who those counselling provide and HIV with people affordable more cover life make done be needed yesterday said Project Law AIDS However, families. their policyholders relief some will that move a April 2007 1 from policies disability on exclusions existing all drop agreed have assurers The Life Offices’ Association (LOA) said its members, representing about 95% of the life industry, had all agreed to the voluntary waiving of the exclusions on policies predating 2005, when it banned the use of exclusion clauses in new business. “Even at that time we recognised that HIV/AIDS exclusions caused social problems,” said LOA CEO Gerhard Joubert.
29 March 2007
Many companies had stopped selling policies with exclusions even before then. The latest changes would affect group life, credit life and assistance business such as funeral policies, Joubert said.
Exclusions would not be dropped on income-replacement benefits, policies requiring regular HIV testing and cases of material nondisclosure by policyholders.
AIDS Law Project senior attorney Fatima Hassan said the decision to waive the exclusions, while welcome, had come about after pressure from groups such as the law project and the ombudsman for long-term insurance.
“For policyholders, this decision is most welcome, it’s groundbreaking,” Hassan said. However, she said there was concern about the 5% of life assurers that were not members of the LOA and would continue to sell policies with exclusion clauses. And new policies designed for those with HIV were still too expensive for many ordinary people, she said.
Pieter Coetzee, convener of the LOA’s medical and under- writing committee, said cover for those with HIV was necessarily more expensive, as life assurers had to price for risk. However, as more data became available and treatment improved, cover would become cheaper, he said.
Stephen Gunnion, www.businessday.co.za