Financial regulators in New York are investigating allegations that insurance companies have declined customers seeking life, disability or long-term care policies because they were taking medication to protect themselves from HIV.

The investigation comes on the heels of a report by the New York Times that showed insurers were regularly denying policies to otherwise healthy men who were taking Truvada, a medication that significantly reduces the probability of HIV transmission. The drug has become popular in the gay community, which is disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS.

The irony, the Times pointed out, is that insurers are discriminating against people who are taking measures to protect themselves from the type of debilitating illness that would lead to expensive claims.

“It doesn't make any sense,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells the Times. “It ought to be the other way around.”

“It's like refusing to insure someone because they use seatbelts,” says Dr. Robert Grant, an AIDS researcher at the University of California-Berkeley.

Maria Vullo, the state's top financial regulator, has urged people who have been denied policies to report them. She said the practices being described by insurers amount to “penalizing applicants based on sexual orientation.”

Many who have been denied might not be aware that they were rejected because they were taking Truvada because insurers typically don't tell applicants why they haven't been approved for a policy. Nor are they required to.

However, regulators can demand that insurers provide the criteria they use. Regulators can also ask to review individual cases to see if the insurers are following their stated criteria.

So far one insurer, Mutual of Omaha, has admitted that it turned down applicants who take Truvada. It justified the decision based on the fact that Truvada is less than 100 percent effective.

Instant Insights /

New York investigating insurers for denying policies to gay men

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