Tell it to SunStar: Insurers can’t discriminate vs. Filipinos with HIV

HEALTH Maintenance Organizations, life insurance firms are expected to revise policies or face sanctions under the new AIDS and Control Law.

Health and life insurers can no longer discriminate against Filipinos living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) under this law.

All insurers in the country are expected to revise their standard policies to comply with the provision of the law that prohibits the exclusion of persons living with HIV.

Under Republic Act 11166, which took effect Jan. 25, people living with HIV can no longer be left without insurance coverage and protection by reason of their condition.

Under Section 42 (e) of the law, “No person living with HIV (PLHIV) shall be denied or deprived of private health insurance under a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and private life insurance coverage under a life insurance company on the basis of the person’s HIV status. Furthermore, no person shall be denied of his life insurance claims if he dies of HIV or AIDS under a valid and subsisting life insurance policy.”

Violators of the provision face up to five years imprisonment and a fine of at least P50,000, plus administrative sanctions such as suspension or revocation of business permit, business license or accreditation, and professional license.

We’ve gone over several standard insurance policies issued prior to the passage of the law, and we came across a number (of policies) that categorically excluded HIV-related cases from coverage. These exclusions are no longer possible.

An example is a leading insurer’s standard policy, which stipulates that “No benefit shall be payable in cases of HIV and or any HIV-related illness including AIDS and/or any mutations, derivations or variations thereof.”

It also states that “No benefit shall be payable in malignant cancer cases when the tumors are in the presence of HIV infection.”

HIV causes AIDS, or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which destroys the human body’s natural ability to fight off all kinds of infections. The condition still does not have any known cure, but Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) slows down the virus.

A total of 11,427 new HIV cases were diagnosed in the country in 2018, according to the Department of Health’s National HIV and AIDS Registry.

The figures brought to 62,029 the cumulative number of people found living with HIV since the government began passive surveillance in 1984.

Of the 62,029 cases, the registry said 3,054 have died, while another 7,098 had clinical manifestations of advanced infection based on World Health Organization standards.

A total of 33,575 Filipinos living with HIV were undergoing ART as of December 2018.—REP. JOHNNY T. PIMENTEL, 2ND DISTRICT SURIGAO DEL SUR)

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