HIV Life insurance

Many people believe that life insurance is simply unobtainable if you suffer from HIV and some even cancel their policy upon diagnosis.

However, securing life insurance is still very much achievable.

While premiums may be slightly higher than those not affected by the condition, you can still find a cost-effective solution.

Using an FCA regulated broker service, such as Reassured, you can compare prices to ensure you’re getting the cover you need at the right price.

What’s more, we have a specialist impaired team who have helped find cover for 45% of customers declined elsewhere.

Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about HIV life insurance…

The stage of your condition and the risk you pose to the insurer will have an impact on the type of cover you can secure.

Different insurers will also provide different levels of cover and pricing strategies for suffers.

Being diagnosed with HIV during the policy term doesn’t invalidate your cover, providing you were honest during the application.

You should check the conditions of your cover to ensure HIV isn’t an exclusion – this is highly unlikely.

As long as it isn’t an exclusion you’re not obligated to inform the insurer of your recent diagnosis.

If it’s an exclusion, you should inform your insurer as the policy won’t be valid and new cover will need to be arranged to meet your change in circumstances.

Certain occupations bring an increased risk of contracting HIV, such as medical professionals, emergency service workers and the military.

Being diagnosed won’t affect the terms of your existing policy, therefore if you work in a profession where you’re at higher risk it’s best to take out life insurance and critical illness cover to ensure you’re fully protected.

HIV tests may be required during the application under certain circumstances, such as high levels of cover, travel, drug use or previous sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

The cost of a HIV test will be covered by the insurer and will take place at either a public or private clinic.

If the results of the test are positive, it’s likely the insurer will defer your application for 6 – 12 months to determine how HIV affects your health and how your body responds to treatment.

You’ll not be required to undergo a test if you’ve already declared yourself HIV positive.

Long-standing policies (10 years or older) may not be as beneficial to HIV sufferers as a newer policy due to updated underwriting processes and medical advances.

Depending on how long your current cover has been in place, there's a chance certain terms may have been written into your policy regarding your HIV.

These changes mean that if you were to take out a policy today, your cover could be more comprehensive and your premiums lower.

As a result, if you took out life cover some time ago it may be beneficial to seek out new quotes to replace for your existing policy. Alternatively, speak with your current insurer to see if you can update your existing cover.

You can compare quotes from some of the UK's leading insurers by using an FCA registered broker service, such as Reassured.

Life insurance for HIV sufferers who use drugs will require further testing during the application.

People who inject drugs (PWID) may also need to perform a test regardless of their known HIV status.

Whilst only 150 cases of HIV a year are as a result of people injecting drugs, this is still the third-highest category of people most likely to contract the disease.

As a result, during the application, you'll be asked information regarding whether you use drugs.

If declared within the PWID category, you'll be asked further questions regarding your drug habits. This is likely to result in having to undertake an HIV test.

There are currently over 100,000 people in the UK living with HIV.

Whilst manageable, HIV is an incurable condition which can bring with it complications, such as AIDS-defining illnesses which damage the body’s immune system.

This highlights the need for life insurance cover to secure the financial wellbeing of your loved ones should the worst happen