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Qualifying for Life Insurance with AIDS or HIV
July 18, 2017
We’ll often get calls from folks who have either tested positive for HIV or been diagnosed with full blown AIDS and, are hoping that they will still be able to qualify for a quality life insurance policy.
And while technically…
These are two pre-existing medical conditions are completely different, in the world of life insurance, they both will essentially be treated the same. And unfortunately, this means that each will receive an automatic decline when applying for a fully underwritten or simplified issue term or whole life insurance policy.
It should be noted however, that with recent advances in the treatment of those who have been exposed to the HIV virus, life insurance companies are beginning to “talk” about the possibility of treating those who have tested positive for HIV similarly to those who have tested positive for hepatitis. Which in some cases, would mean that these applicants would theoretically be eligible for life insurance. At this point, however, we are not aware of any life insurance company that is currently accepting applications from those who have tested positive for HIV. That being said however, Prudential Life Insurance does seem to be the most vocal in the area so it may be worth giving them a call directly to see where they currently stand on this issue.
So now that we’ve...
Discussed the fact that it’s either going to be very difficult for one to qualify for a tradition term or whole life insurance policy if not impossible, let’s just take a minute or two to discuss some options that may be available for these folks that the can qualify for.
Because if you haven’t noticed already, we here at TermLife2Go are all about trying to help folks find coverage when possible!
Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance Policy and or Accidental Death Insurance.
Since those who have tested positive for HIV and/or have full blown AIDS aren’t going to be eligible for a traditional term or whole life insurance policies, we’re going to need to look at some “alternative” insurance products to try to fill the void.
To do this, we’re generally going to look at two different products that will accept those who have tested positive for HIV or have AIDS. The first of these two that we’ll want to look at is called a Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance Policy.
Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance Policy.
A guaranteed issue life insurance policy is a life insurance policy that will not require an applicant to take a medical exam or answer any health related questions in order for him or her to qualify.These policies are typically reserved for those who cannot qualify for any other type of life insurance.
The policies are generally small whole life insurance policies reserved for covering final expenses and burial costs. Normally the coverage ranges from as low as $1,000 up to $25,000.
Guaranteed acceptance policies are offered through the best final expense and burial insurance companies. If you need more info on this type of coverage, please don't hesitate to give us a call.
Available with no questions asked and no health exam...
Which means that as long as you are a US citizen, and you’re currently between the ages of 45-85 (product may not be available in your state), you WILL qualify for these types of life insurance policies.
But before you get too excited…
You need to understand that guaranteed issue life insurance policies are going to have potentially 3 major disadvantages for you as the applicant.
Potential Disadvantages to purchasing Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance Policy:
- Guaranteed issue life insurance policies will generally only provide about $25,000 dollars in coverage.
- Dollar for dollar, they are one of the most expensive “types” of life insurance you can buy.
- And guaranteed issue life insurance policies will contain what is called a Graded Death Benefit.
Graded Death Benefit.
Graded death benefits are clauses written into guaranteed issue life insurance policies which state that in order for your life insurance policy to pay the death benefit for “Natural” causes of death, you will need to live for a set period of time (typically 2-3 yrs) after your policy goes into effect.
Additionally, should you die during this “waiting period” of natural causes (any cause of death due to illness) your guaranteed issue life insurance policy WILL NOT pay the death benefit of the policy.
Now while this may sound like a terrible deal, you may be interested in reading our article that goes into greater detail outlining these types of policies and explaining why a Graded Death Benefit is a “necessary evil” to ensure that these types of policies can exist.
Accidental Death Policies.
Another option one might want to consider is what is called an Accidental Death Policy. Now these types of policies are not “True Life Insurance policies” because they will not provide coverage for death due to any type of illness or “natural” cause of death.
Instead…
These policies will cover you in the event that your death is caused by an accidental cause such as a: motor vehicle accident, slip and fall, or natural disaster.
Now the downside of these types of policies is pretty clear (no coverage for “natural illness related deaths’ such as cancer heart disease, stroke etc…), but they will provide solid coverage against accidental causes of death, and their relative affordability certainly make them worth looking at in our opinion.
Conclusion
We’ll be the first to admit that we’ve covered quite a bit of information in this brief little article and we wouldn’t expect you to become an expert at any of this at this point, but what we do hope that you take away from this article is that just because you’ve tested positive for HIV or are suffering from AIDs, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have options.
