SAfrica insurers do away with HIV/AIDS exclusions

JOHANNESBURG, March 27 (Reuters) - South African life insurers will now pay out death and disability claims to those infected with HIV/AIDS, the industry body LIfe Offices' Association (LOA) said on Tuesday.

Beginning April 1, life insurers, among them Sanlam (SLMJ.J) and Old Mutual (OML.L), will not turn down any claims for a lump-sum death payout or disability benefit based on the HIV/AIDS status of the insured policyholder.

The LOA said vast improvements have been made in treatment of HIV/AIDS in South Africa over the past decade.

"Initially, there was no treatment for HIV and the disease was therefore not insurable. Now, provided there is full compliance with ART (anti-retroviral treatment) prescriptions, HIV/AIDS is considered a chronic treatable disease like diabetes and many other chronic diseases and is therefore insurable," said Pieter Coetzer, convenor of the LOA's Medical and Underwriting Committee.

About 5.4 million of South Africa's 47 million people are infected by the disease, which kills an estimated 1,000 people in the country every day.

The government launched a revamped national AIDS plan earlier this month, aiming to cut new infections by 50 percent and bring treatment and support to at least 80 percent of HIV-postive people by 2011.

Pressure group the Aids Law Project (ALP) said the life insurers' new stance was groundbreaking.

"We have been lobbying the life industry to drop HIV/AIDS exclusions for a number of years. And at last people have been given the security and peace of mind that their life and disability policies will pay out the lump sum benefit they have been paying premiums for even if they contract HIV/AIDS," said Fatima Hassan, an ALP attorney.

The LOA said 29 of its 36 members will put the recommendation into practice from April 1.