Health Insurance Still A Myth for AIDS & STD Patients

Incidence of HIV in India is constantly on the rise. According to the last available statistics of the National AIDS control organization, nearly 2.3 million people of the country's billion population are presently living with HIV or AIDS.

Despite ceaseless media campaigns over the years, this lethal viral infection still continues to affect the social life of the patients rather disastrously, ruining them financially as well. As per a recent study conducted by a leading price comparison engine for loans, insurance and investments, every single non-group mediclaim policy issued in India “permanently excludes” hospitalization and other healthcare expenses incurred due to any sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) including AIDS. This is somewhat surprising because, AIDS, as proven medically, can be caused by many factors other than unprotected sex. Having a health insurance policy for years, and not making use of it for any substantial cause till the present date does not help anyway either.

This permanent exclusion of STD and HIV/AIDS from the scope of health insurance coverages is not completely illogical also. If considered from the health insurance companies' point of view, framing a policy for such a disease is undoubtedly quite difficult. - Difficult because, HIV/AIDS is a relatively new disease which has been around just 25-30 years now, and still, there is no certified cure for it. Accordingly, no one can say with certainty how much expenses would be incurred for the treatment of the disease. No reliable data is available regarding the survival rate and mortality caused by HIV/AIDS, and the ultimate outcome is also uncertain.

Since, health insurance companies, or for that matter the entire health insurance industry depends on proper statistics as in how many people get affected by a certain disease as well as the average cost for treating it and eventual outcomes to price their products appropriately, it becomes very difficult for them to come up with a feasible solution to this problem.

But this logic does not hold true for all other STDs. Statistical data on diseases such as Hepatitis B Virus infection (HBV), Human Papilloma Virus (Human Papilloma Virus), etc. is widely available nowadays, and treatment protocols and outcomes are reasonably reliable like any other non-sexually transmitted disease. But it seems our health insurance companies are still stuck in an era when getting infected with sexually transmitted diseases were considered immoral, and anybody getting hospitalized or being medicated due to them was thought to be undeserving of any kind of financial help and health insurance coverage. Enormous expenses to treat STDs and HIV/AIDS during that time was most probably another reason for such diseases being sidelined by health insurance policy makers.

However, today the time has changed. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) should now take initiatives to bring the HIV/AIDS and other STD patients under the direct coverage of health insurance policies. Some portion of the government funds are being spent on fighting this scourge, and some NGOs are also working towards this. But, there is a lot more to be done. Government should expedite the process of health insurance policy reform and do the needful as soon as possible.