Indian insurance regulators have imposed new rules on life insurance companies, which will require them to cover people with HIV from April next year.
Insurers must also continue to offer health coverage to customers who contract HIV after they have purchased their policies, according to the new regulations from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.
Insurance companies in India don’t currently offer life insurance coverage to HIV-infected patients as there is no cure or effective vaccine to fight the disease, only treatments to slow its progression.
The new rules come into effect from April 1, 2014. Insurers will have to put in place a board-approved policy to underwrite insurance for people living with the HIV/AIDS, clearly considering all risks associated with doing so.
The companies will also have to state all the risk factors which would mean cover is declined.
"With respect to persons who are HIV negative at date of commencement of the contract and subsequently found to be HIV positive during the term of the policy, the insurers shall not reject/deny any claim, on such grounds," the IRDA circular stated.
HIV causes AIDS which makes patients vulnerable to otherwise fairly harmless illnesses.
The latest estimates available from the National AIDS Control Organisation show India had 2.09 million people living with AIDS/HIV as of 2011.
Children below 15 years old account for 7% of all infections; while 86% of HIV-positive Indians are aged between 15 and 49 years.
In India, there has been an overall reduction of 57% in the annual rate of new HIV infections among adults — from 274,000 new cases in 2000 to 116,000 in 2011, AIDS Control Organisation said.
Worldwide, HIV infects an estimated 2.7million people a year.
Currently in India, only Chennai-based Star Health and Allied Insurance offers health coverage for people infected with the virus. In other countries, such as the U.S. and U.K., it is possible to get insurance coverage if you have HIV.
Star Health and Allied Insurance launched a specific health-insurance policy for HIV/AIDS patients in 2010 and since then has enrolled 7,000 people, of whom 2,000 are children, said Rama Doraiswami, an assistant vice president of the company.
The policy is offered as group coverage through nonprofits or a district administration’s health program and offers regular health coverage to HIV patients for diseases except gastroenteritis and tuberculosis. The insurer also provides the option of a lump-sum payment when an HIV patient is diagnosed with AIDS.
Although it is a social initiative of the IRDA, the regulator should not push everyone to start offering such a policy, Ms. Doraiswami told India Real Time in a telephone interview from Chennai.
Every company should be allowed to evaluate its limitations and risk appetite in offering these products, she said.
"Socially it may sound great, but this will provide insurance companies a reason and opportunity to look at the price structure of their policies," said Prabodh Thakker, chairman of Mumbai-based Aon Global Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd.
The regulator has given companies 15 days to provide comments and feedback on the draft rules.
Source: India Real Time
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