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People infected with AIDS often face a critical issue of obtaining a health insurance. Chances are that due to intervening governing bodies, you may be granted the health coverage, but the stigma does not end there. Keeping and using that health insurance coverage can prove another major task facing many hindrances.

People infected with AIDS often face a critical issue of obtaining a health insurance. Chances are that due to intervening governing bodies, you may be granted the health coverage, but the stigma does not end there. Keeping and using that health insurance coverage can prove another major task facing many hindrances.

Insurance companies are often involved in many unlawful practices, which are considerably discriminating and illegal towards HIV infected people. Some of them have been outlined below for your benefit.

An important part of any insurance company is it's underwriting. The underwriting procedures allow insurance companies to evaluate the risk of a potential policy holder. This process determines if the applicant is either rejected or accepted. During the application process you'll be asked a series of health related questions. California residents are protected under law from an insurance company using a blood test report for detecting the presence of antibodies, known as the likely cause of AIDS.

Insurance companies are prohibited under law from assessing a persons risk on the basis of sexual orientation. This is a common area where insurance companies discriminate without probable cause. Many companies have been found declining single males within certain age categories who live in areas considered as gay friendly.

It is common for insurance companies to exclude what are deemed pre-existing conditions. These are conditions or illnesses that the applicant had before submitting the application to the insurance company. The insurance company has to right to issue the insurance policy with these conditions excluded from the policy coverage.

In case of HIV infected people, often the symptoms are noticeable to the insurer, as they deal with the medical aspects on daily basis, and are well aware of it. Most of the time, suspecting that a person may have HIV infection, the policy is designed in such a way to avoid claims in future.

Insurance companies have also used the application to limit future liabilities. When policy holders are found to be HIV positive, companies have declined claims citing that policy holders provided inaccurate or incomplete medical history on the application. Courts have stated in many states that insurance companies can only deny these claims if they can prove that the applicant purposely withheld information.