Access to affordable products helps to shift stigma associated with HIV and AIDS
03 December 2013 | Life Insurance | Dread Disease and/or Disability / Critical Ilness | Petrie Marx, Sanlam
While the stigma and discrimination related to HIV and AIDS continue in many settings, steps by the insurance industry to address and eliminate the differentiated treatment of people living with HIV are proving an encouraging development.
Petrie Marx, Sanlam product actuary, says on the eve of World Aids Day there are positive signs that the stigma associated with HIV is shifting on the back of improved access for people living with HIV to critical needs like life cover.
"Sanlam is very pleased with the levels interest in our normal Matrix life insurance cover by people living with HIV, not least because we could issue cover to almost 80 per cent of the applications since we started to receive applications for the product at the end of July this year.
"Moreover, we are experiencing a definite shift in the stigma associated with HIV, as people living with the disease are coming forward and approaching their intermediaries very directly for assistance with financial planning and the purchase of life cover.
"Nevertheless, Sanlam still offers people with HIV the facility to contact us directly and confidentially, should they want to – or to handle the medical underwriting aspect of their cover confidentially with our underwriters, using tele-underwriting.”
Marx believes further contributing factors in eradicating the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS are that HIV infection is no longer seen as a life sentence and the increasing evidence that people living with the disease are being treated with more respect.
In fact, Sanlam’s announcement earlier this year that it was the first major insurer in South Africa to offer standard life cover to people living with HIV came on the back of strong international and local research showing that HIV is now a manageable disease if given timely and proper treatment.
The maximum insured amount on Sanlam’s Matrix life cover product is limited to R5 million and, as with all chronic diseases, granting of cover is subject to certain underwriting guidelines. Factors that are taken into account include the stage of the disease, the extent of disease control and compliance, as well as the possible presence of any complications.
