Can You Get Life Insurance if You Are Gay?
Are you gay? Are you in the market for life insurance and tired of being turned down for coverage? You are NOT alone, many of our customers are gay and many if not all of them get great life insurance coverage using our free online quote service. We know which companies are gay friendly and will not butt into your private life.
If you are a chain-smoker, heavy drinker or are extremely overweight, you are likely to find it difficult obtaining a life insurance policy with reasonable premium rates. However, sexual orientation should now have no bearing on the availability to you of insurance products. This positive development is reflected in the recently published guide from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), which was co-produced with Compass, the gay financial advisers.
Despite the fact that, since October 2005 insurance companies have no longer been asking the kind of questions which may lead to disclosure of sexuality (and so the possibility of premium rates being raised because of a potential HIV/AIDS connection), concerns about life insurance expense and prejudice have persisted in the gay community.
Unnecessary fears have resulted in many rejecting life cover altogether – an unadvisable move for anyone with a partner or mortgage. Ever since the first appearance of AIDS in the early 1980s, many gay men applying for life cover have complained of unfair treatment, referring to the question about sexuality (the ‘gay question’) on application forms for life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection.
The ABI guidance has put to an end this practice and that of asking any other intrusive personal questions. The guidance also cleared up the common misconception that simply taking an HIV test will be damaging to applications from gay men. In fact, you are not required to declare negative tests.
On the other hand, insurers can ask all applicants a more general question such as “Within the past five years, have you been exposed to the risk of HIV infection?” This is understandable given that HIV can be contracted not just as a result of unsafe sex, but also through intravenous drug use, blood transfusions, and surgery undertaken in certain parts of the world.
If you have tested positive for HIV, you most disclose this information on your application form. You should also disclose any sexually transmitted disease you may have had, although you are not expected to make judgements on the health implications of such diseases. One-off minor infections are not likely to be of any concern to insurers, but if there is any doubt about long term implications for health (as, for example, would be the case concerning syphilis) your doctor will be contacted, with your consent.
Moreover, insurers can no longer make assumptions about sexuality from details of your living arrangements, occupation or medical history. An individual’s occupation now cannot be used to indicate HIV risk; however, it is legitimate for insurers to ask about your occupation for the purpose of calculating the risk of death or accidents at work.
According to the ABI, there is at present no data on the sexual behavior of couples in a civil partnership. Consequently, some life insurance companies still treat gay couples as single people when assessing HIV risk, while other providers apply the same consideration to those in a civil partnership as they would to a heterosexual married couple.
According to the Office for National Statistics, almost 16,000 gay partnerships have taken place since the Civil Partnership Act of December 2005. And currently, the ABI is working to insure that men registering civil partnerships are treated the same as married couples with regard to HIV risk.
Question by Alex Birnbaum: Can a person with life-threatening health issues (AIDS, etc) get life insurance?
I need to know – is it possible (or common) for people with HIV/AIDS to get life insurance in North America?
If yes – how to go about it and what are the specifics?
If not – why and what options do such people have to provide for their relatives?
Best answer:
Answer by Victory is Mine
Short answer …NO
If you want to provide make some long term investments or investments that be quickly liquefied on your death.
sorry dude
Add your own answer in the comments!
Being, From, Getting, insurance, life, Prevent
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Yes, it’s quite possible – especially if money is no object.
You can probably find a high risk life insurance policy willing to sell you a $ 100,000 policy, for a one time premium of $ 110,000.
Or, you can probably buy into one of those “guaranteed issue” policies, that doesn’t pay out, unless you live at LEAST two full years after taking the policy out. They have VERY low limits.
You are not going to be able to buy a high value, low premium policy. It’s TOO LATE. What you need to do, is have a family meeting, let everyone know what you’re doing and why, and remind the HEALTHY family members, that NOW is the time to buy life insurance, if they need it – when they are healthy.
Presidential Life used to offer a graded death benefit life insurance policy, not sure if they still do.
It was a $ 25,000 death benefit, where the full death benefit becomes available after 2 years.
Yes, it is possible. All life insurers require medical underwriting. The decision to accept your application – and the premium cost you will be offered – depend on that underwriting. There is no legal entitlement to life insurance.
First off don’t make the flat out assumption that you are uninsurable. You may able to get an uprated policy or you might be declined. You should pursue that before you consider a guaranteed issue policy.
Guaranteed issue individual life insurance will insure anyone with no medical examination and few or no medical questions. Of course the insurer fully understands that those seeking this type of coverage are not insurable in the standard market so they compensate for the additional risk by setting the premiums very high, offering only a low face amount for the death benefit and grading the benefit over at least two years.
A graded death benefit policy pays out only a portion of the death benefit if you die within the first several years of the policy. Check the policy details for a schedule of how the benefit amount is graded. Some policies will only return the premiums paid if the insured dies before the policy has been in effect for two years.
A guaranteed issue policy should be considered as a last resort. If you do decide to go that route review the provisions carefully as these policies vary in their benefits and limitations.
Here’s some info and some potential carriers (see link below). Updated as of 2009 If the HIV individual does get accepted, I would definitely suggest asking the carrier about permanent life insurance (universal life, indexed universal life, or even variable universal life) so that if health fails over time, he/she is not turned down for more coverage at the end of the initial term. However, be aware that premiums for the permanent policies will be higher than for any term ones. They list four possible carriers in the article below.
http://www.term-life-online.com/hiv-life-insurance.html
Underwriting hasn’t caught up yet with medical science, so be aware it may be difficult to find a carrier. Sometimes, it might be best to see if there’s a group policy at work, at some fraternal group the person may belong too, etc., that they can join and keep. Often group policies at work allow you to shift to an individual policy after you quit or are laid off (usually that has to be done within a very short and specified time limit.)
Good luck.
In 2008, 58,000 Canadians were living with AIDS/HIV. That is a large enough market for insurers to care. I am not entirely sure about the US, but this is how it works in Canada…
Basically anyone can get life insurance from so-called “guaranteed issue” providers or “simplified issue” life insurance providers.
Guaranteed Issue:
- no medical tests or questions are asked, thus no HIV/AIDS question either – that’s good,
- premiums are quite high, although sometimes it is better to get any coverage than getting none,
- face amounts are not too high, which may be an inconvenience,
- a two-year waiting period is in place, which means that if you pass away within two years of signing the policy by a non-accidental death, the insurer will only pay out the accrued premiums and sometimes the interest
Simplified Issue:
- no medical tests, only a couple of medical questions
- offers more value for money than guaranteed issue, also higher premiums can be purchased
- does not necessarily have the two-year waiting period
- the AIDS/HIV questions, if asked, are often very permissive and not specific (i.e. you can answer truthfully and still qualify)
Hope that helps!