Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association - July 11, 2007
Three of South Africa's biggest life-insurance companies were the first to introduce life policies for people with HIV/Aids in 2001, with The Netherlands following suit only last year, a statement said.
Yet, despite South Africa's expertise in underwriting policies for HIV-positive people, local life insurers had a hard time convincing international experts that HIV was now an insurable disease, provided access to treatment was available.
The convener of the LOA's medical and underwriting standing committee, Pieter Coetzer, recently shared South Africa's experience of underwriting HIV/Aids at the International Congress of Life Assurance Medicine in Berlin, Germany, the statement continued.
He informed participants about antiretroviral therapy programmes in South Africa and the differences between the old and new generation life products available to HIV-positive people.
Coetzer said South Africa's long-term insurance industry remained one of the most sophisticated in the world.
"The world is interested in what we are doing, but experts remain sceptical about the wisdom of underwriting people who are HIV positive. With the exception of The Netherlands, the rest of the world prefers taking the wait-and-see approach."
Coetzer said that existing HIV/Aids insurance products were still relatively expensive.
However, he said South Africa's current offering represented the initial step towards affordable and fair risk cover for people living with the disease.
Coetzer said at least one of South Africa's big life insurers was about to launch a more affordable life-insurance product for HIV-positive people.
The LOA also said that people living with HIV/Aids who experience problems accessing treatment have difficulty obtaining life-insurance policies designed for them.
Coetzer said local insurers were "not prescriptive" about what kind of treatment people living with HIV/Aids were getting when assessing their eligibility for insurance.
For example, HIV/Aids treatment at a government clinic was accepted by insurers providing policies for people with HIV/Aids.
However, he said people living in provinces where treatment was not yet available would have a problem accessing insurance if their CD4 count was at a level where they needed to do so.
This should send out a message to the government that HIV/Aids treatment was being made available too slowly.
Coetzer said a conservative estimate was that 20% of the people who needed to be on treatment for HIV/Aids were currently accessing this.
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