HIV+professionals been denied life insurance???

[Gabacholoco313]

 I'm two months into my new job, I love my job, and I have no complaints about my station in life. I have been positive for 3 1/2 years. I've busted my ass over the last two years to come up out of the trap and make something of myself. I'm finally in a position where I'm earning management level money and I'm only 26 years old. However, today my company's life insurance representative from liberty mutual came by. I almost got laughed out of the room when they found out I was HIV-positive. Those motherfuckers told me that not only would they not insure me, but that every major insurance company would not insure me.  I have been informed by another positive friend that there are companies out there that will ensure us, but I'm furious about the discrimination. President Obama made huge strides with healthcare, and now health insurance companies cannot discriminate against pre-existing conditions. I have no idea why that same set of rules does not apply to life insurance companies, and I want to take them on. I'm looking for individuals who have also been denied, and would like to start a class action lawsuit against some of the largest insurance companies in the United States. This is absolute bullshit. With science being what it is today regarding HIV, professionals living with the disease can have completely normal lives and possibly outlive normal individuals.  This is honestly the first time in 3 1/2 years I have felt worse than the day that I was diagnosed. It was like I was stabbed in the stomach with a rusty knife. I don't care what it takes, I don't care what it costs, I want the insurance industry to pay for their discrimination. Please let me know if you're out there and you are interested.  It's not about the money for me. I know I can bust my ass over the course of my life and make enough to provide for my family, if I ever have one. It's the fact that other individuals in our situation will be fucked over and have no power to do anything about it. I would rather stand up and fight for our rights versus sitting idly by and just swallowing this insult.  I grew up the son of an attorney, and I know horse shit when I hear it. This is horseshit. We're on the brink of cures for our disease, but yet the insurance industry can deny us the same privileges normal people take for granted.

[bocker3]

Something doesn't "smell right" here.....  You're one and only post here is to try and recruit people for a class action lawsuit?!?

first - I've worked for many companies over my lifetime and I have never met with any of the companies providing life insurance as a benefit.  I've always signed up for it via HR.  Why would you have sat down with an insurance representative and why would they have "found out" you are HIV+?

Second - if you sign up for company provided life insurance when you initially get hired, you generally get it without any physical or medical questions (at least up to a certain $$ amount).  It is only if you try to add this benefit AFTER initial benefits enrollment (or want to go above some $$$ threshold - which has always been fairly high in my experience) that you need to answer questions on health and/or have a physical.

Finally -- This is not unique to HIV+ individuals.  There are many medical conditions for which you will be denied life insurance.  Granted, I DO think that a blanket denial for being HIV+ is outdated and should be looked at anew - given the success of today's medicines.  Having said that - on what grounds do you plan to sue them?  You can't conflate health insurance and life insurance - they are different things entirely.  By your logic - people could simply sit back, wait until they get a terminal disease and then buy life insurance.  This would avoid anyone ever having to worry about paying for years and years -- which is how life insurance is able to pay death benefits - from the premiums of the living (not from YOUR premiums).

Anyway -- as I said, I agree that Life Insurers shouldn't be so quick to deny an HIV+ person, but I don't see you successfully suing to change this.