NCJ Number
126515
Date Published
1989
Length
54 pages
Annotation
The impact of the epidemic on insurance law has raised some new questions and highlighted some inherent contradictions of long standing in the system.
Abstract
Among the new questions are whether it is acceptable to discriminate against gay people in the sale of insurance, and whether insurance companies that run medical tests on applicants might thereby assume further duties to counsel people regarding their health and to maintain strict confidentiality of test results. Questions perhaps more difficult to resolve are those which arise from contradictions inherent in the system of insurance. As expectations regarding standards of health care have risen, State legislatures and insurance regulators have required that insurers provide ever greater benefits, including home health care, prescription drugs, therapy for substance abuse, and the like. As society tries to meet the needs for medical care in the overwhelmingly young patient population affected by HIV infection and AIDS, it meets head-on the efforts of insurance companies to screen out those at high risk of presenting major claims for payment. The primary governmental source of health insurance coverage for those with AIDS and HIV infection is Medicaid. Persons with AIDS may qualify for Medicaid in one of three ways. They may be eligible for Supplemental Security Income disability payments or may qualify as medically needy for reasons specifically related to their illness or they may qualify for economic reasons unrelated to their illness.