AEGiS-APPJ: White Paper: The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and HTLV-III Testing

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1987. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

White Paper: The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and HTLV-III Testing

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 2, no. 1 (Winter 1987): 32-33
American Council of Life Insurance

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) poses major problems for insurers and policyholders, as well as for the whole of society. If recent trends in the spread of this national health threat continue, the insurance industry could be faced with billions of dollars in AIDS-related medical, disability and death claims in the next few years. In addition, the ability of companies to determine an applicant's insurability is under legislative challenge; a number of states seek to restrict the AIDS-related medical information available to an insurer. If life and health insurance companies are prevented from using medical information that would enable them to identify applicants who are at high risk of contracting AIDS, low-risk policy holders will have to pay higher premiums to compensate for the inadequate premiums received from high-risk policyholders. Insurance companies have an obligation to use sound underwriting practices that assure fair premiums for all policyholders. This paper will examine the AIDS problem in detail, including the role of insurance underwriting, testing as part of the underwriting process, types of tests and who uses them, and confidentiality. Through such an overview of the issue, both the American Council of Life Insurance and the Health Insurance Association of America hope to provide member companies with a basic understanding of this important issue.
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