Insurers Give $1.1 Million to AIDS Fight

The health and life insurance industries Tuesday announced a contribution of $1.1 million for AIDS education and research, their largest single donation to combat a specific disease.

The bulk of the money, $900,000, will go the American Red Cross “to de-mystify the disease and reduce unwarranted fear surrounding AIDS,” according to Dr. Lewellys F. Barker, the Red Cross senior vice president. “There is a tremendous amount of ignorance” about AIDS, he said at a news conference.

Educational Campaign

The Red Cross educational campaign will emphasize that acquired immune deficiency syndrome is “spread by sexual contact, needle sharing or, rarely, through transfused blood or its components,” according to a new brochure. “The AIDS virus is NOT spread by casual contact,” such as hugging and handshaking, by using bathroom facilities or swimming pools or by sneezing, coughing or spitting, it said.

The funds are coming from the Health Insurance Assn. of America and the American Council of Life Insurance.

AIDS “is a public health problem of enormous dimensions,” said ex-Sen. Richard S. Schweiker, president of the life insurance group and former secretary of health, education and welfare. “It became clear that we had to do something as an industry to help combat it.”

The Red Cross will spend its money for brochures, a documentary film, a discussion guide, public service announcements and a slide series for use in schools.

In addition to the Red Cross grant, the insurance industries will donate $100,000 to the American Foundation for AIDS Research and $160,000 for a joint study by the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Schweiker said that the life insurance industry has not developed a standard procedure for dealing with AIDS as an insurance risk.

“Each company has to assess on their own” whether to require tests for AIDS before approving applications for insurance policies, he said. But the industry must retain the “right to classify according to risk,” just as it deals with the risk of people who may have cancer, heart disease or diabetes, Schweiker said.

A newly insured male, age 30, has about a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying in that year. Someone infected with the AIDS virus may have a 1 in 10 chance of dying within 5 years, according to the American Council of Life Insurance.

Any tests imposed by companies would apply only to eligibility for new life insurance policies. They would not affect existing policies.

Policies Cover AIDS

The overwhelming majority of Americans, about 85%, has group health insurance through their employers. Any illnesses related to AIDS are covered under health insurance policies, James L. Moorefield, president of the Health Insurance Assn., said.

A test for AIDS could be required by a company if a person is applying for an individual health insurance policy. But Moorefield said that he knows of no companies requiring such tests.