Insurance controversy for people living with HIV/AIDS

When Mercy Makhalemele's husband died of HIV/AIDS seven years ago her home was taken away after the insurance company refused to pay out his life cover.

"At the time, I decided not to fight it because I had too many things to deal with," she told PlusNews.

As the executive director of a local community organisation, Makhalemele has been working with members to create a burial scheme for people with HIV/AIDS.

Through her work, Makhalemele said she has encountered people who have been treated with injustice and a lack of respect, because of their status.

"People living with HIV/AIDS are also passionate about the future, we also have families we would like to see taken care of, yet many of us cannot have access to something as basic as insurance or buying a house," she said.

According to the National Association of People living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) it is a widespread problem in South Africa.

The organisation has been running a campaign against insurance companies and banks, calling for a review of their allegedly discriminatory policies, NAPWA spokesman Joe Manciya told Plusnews.

Old Mutual South Africa is one of the country's largest financial groups and offers life assurance, asset management, banking and general insurance operations.

Old Mutual was the first company to offer a financial advice service for people living with HIV/AIDS. The service, called Omucare, includes a life cover product for people with HIV/AIDS.

"If you took out a life cover policy when you were HIV negative, and then later find out you are positive, you will not be paid out if you die of an AIDS-related illness within five years.

"But if you die after those five years, then you will be paid out," an Old Mutual financial adviser told PlusNews.

"If you take out a life cover policy when you are HIV positive, you will have to pay higher premiums," the advisor added.

These premiums, however, are "very expensive for the average individual living with AIDS," Makhalemele said.

HIV testing and increased premiums were part of the company's obligation to other policy holders, Old Mutual deputy managing director, Peter Moyo, said in a press release.

"To deny assurers this business principle ... would put generally affordable life assurance out of reach of the vast majority of South Africans," he added.

But these measures are a form of discrimination, isolating people living with HIV/AIDS from others, "as if HIV positive people do not die from natural causes other than HIV/AIDS related infections," Manciya said.

Discriminating practices by the insurance companies included not providing pre-testing and post-testing counselling and a lack of confidentiality, he added.

According to Manciya, some NAPWA members had found that the insurance companies communicated directly with the doctor or laboratory performing the HIV tests, without their consent.

That people living with HIV/AIDS were a high-risk group was a valid point. But, "in this day and age, the insurance industry cannot afford to just look at the present situation, they need to look at the future," Makhalemele said.

The companies needed to have a "more human" strategy for dealing with people living with HIV/AIDS, she added.