Insurance Planned for Workers at Risk of AIDS : Health: Doctors, nurses and firefighters are among the targeted professions. Policies would be payable in a lump sum upon proof of infection.
At least three U.S. companies plan to market insurance specifically designed to protect people whose jobs could expose them to AIDS-infected individuals, such as health care workers, emergency medical technicians and firefighters, The Times has learned.
The policies, which vary in approach, would be available to uninfected individuals who in the course of their jobs are likely to come into contact with people infected with the virus for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. They would be payable in a lump sum upon proof of infection.
The proposed coverage already is being condemned by many in the AIDS community who contend that the companies are preying on fears of AIDS transmission in the workplace.
MSG & Associates, a management company in Roswell, Ga., has proposed marketing a plan that would allow individuals to buy $25,000 “units” of coverage, up to a maximum amount of $250,000, for an annual premium of $500. The policies would be backed by Lloyds of London.
A confidential memorandum sent by the company to prospective board members and obtained by The Times projects that the policies would generate after-tax earnings of $40.4 million the first year and $109 million the second year.
“We are not concerned with lifestyles--we are aiming at a risk profession,” said George Harris, executive vice president of the company. “We are approaching this in a lump sum payment, rather than a reimbursement for costs. The advantages are that these people will be able to live with dignity, have an income, and pursue treatment as they see fit.”
At least two other companies, Intec CCS of West Palm Beach, Fla., and International Insurance Designs of Columbia, Md., are proposing similar plans, although their coverage is targeted at groups of five or more and probably will be marketed through hospitals or unions.
Thousands of physicians and nurses “can be faced with treating an AIDS patient at any time of the day and they don’t even know it,” said Larry Cumbie, a representative of Intec CCS, which is designing a group policy for health care workers at risk for the human immunodeficiency virus. “The product is designed to protect . . . against the possibility they could become infected. It will enable them to leave something behind.”
Cumbie said the annual premium would be based on a percentage of an individual’s salary, generally about 3%, with the benefit totaling up to 2 1/2 times the annual salary.
International Insurance Designs also intends to market HIV group health insurance to health care professionals similarly, with benefits ranging from one to 2 1/2 times a person’s annual salary.
Officials at the American Medical Assn. and the International Assn. of Fire Fighters said that their organizations do not endorse such insurance programs and emphasized that, although the occupational risk of HIV infection is real, it is still extremely small.
There have been only 37 documented cases of HIV infection through occupational exposure since the federal government began keeping records in 1981, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC has said, however, that there probably are a number of unreported cases.
“Buyers should be aware of the low incidence (of infection) as they consider their need and the price of the insurance,” said Dr. M. Roy Schwarz, the AMA’s senior vice president for medical education and science. “Eating breakfast is not without some risk to your well-being in life, yet I don’t think everyone would go out and buy insurance to protect themselves from the risks of eating breakfast.”
He said that the AMA, however, strongly advocates development of policies covering acute and chronic health care costs and disability for medical professionals, particularly in cases involving infection with HIV or hepatitis B, another life-threatening illness considered a serious risk for health care workers.
Officials from AIDS-related organizations attacked the insurance plans as seeking to make money off fears of contracting AIDS in the workplace.
“I have spent the last eight years of my life working to fight unwarranted fear of AIDS,” Jeff Levi, an AIDS policy consultant, wrote in a letter to MSG & Associates in response to a request to join its board. “Your proposed insurance plan does exactly the opposite: it takes advantage of people’s fears . . . and seeks to profit from those fears.”
MSG’s Harris denied Levi’s characterization.
“Just as people take out earthquake and flood insurance, they hope it never occurs,” he said. “But should it occur, they want to be covered. We hope for an early cure of this disease. But until that time, we want people . . . to know if they contract the virus, they have coverage.”
