Health Insurance and the Effect of Writing Hiv/Aids
RESEARCH TOPIC:
HEALTH INSURANCE PRICING AND THE EFFECT OF WRITING HIV/AIDS INTO THE BUSINESS: Striking a balance between indiscrimination, risk management and competitiveness.
INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND
Despite significant advances in HIV treatment and education, people living with HIV and AIDS have had a difficult time obtaining private health insurance and have been particularly vulnerable to insurance industry ‘abuses’. What are the insurers’ excuses for these ‘abuses’? What changes can begin to improve access to insurance for people living with HIV/AIDS and other disabling conditions and help people with these conditions retain the coverage they have? Are they so much of a high risk that incorporating them into the business portfolio would lead to them having to pay too high a premium; otherwise the business will be exposed to an unfavourable business risk? This paper seeks to look into all these and other issues.
Health insurance,sometimes referred to as Medical Aid Schemes,are schemes that help pay your health related fees like doctor’s fees, medical costs, hospital fees and so on. As a policy holder you pay a monthly fee to the medical aid company, which allows you as the policy holder to be medically covered up to a certain amount. Medical schemes have numerous advantages, chief among being the ability to access medical attention even when financial situations are less than favourable. The quality of care is another advantage of medical schemes. The doctors and hospitals that medical schemes refer their clients to must meet certain standards as prescribed by the law in any location a medical scheme might operate within. This fact alone encourages a medical scheme to provide the best medical care that it can. Most care givers associated with medical schemes are private clinics, doctors, and specialists. There are over 10 such health insurance companies in Zimbabwe.
“I have had lots of friends who've been affected by Aids and a very good friend of mine,
HEALTH INSURANCE PRICING AND THE EFFECT OF WRITING HIV/AIDS INTO THE BUSINESS: Striking a balance between indiscrimination, risk management and competitiveness.
INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND
Despite significant advances in HIV treatment and education, people living with HIV and AIDS have had a difficult time obtaining private health insurance and have been particularly vulnerable to insurance industry ‘abuses’. What are the insurers’ excuses for these ‘abuses’? What changes can begin to improve access to insurance for people living with HIV/AIDS and other disabling conditions and help people with these conditions retain the coverage they have? Are they so much of a high risk that incorporating them into the business portfolio would lead to them having to pay too high a premium; otherwise the business will be exposed to an unfavourable business risk? This paper seeks to look into all these and other issues.
Health insurance,sometimes referred to as Medical Aid Schemes,are schemes that help pay your health related fees like doctor’s fees, medical costs, hospital fees and so on. As a policy holder you pay a monthly fee to the medical aid company, which allows you as the policy holder to be medically covered up to a certain amount. Medical schemes have numerous advantages, chief among being the ability to access medical attention even when financial situations are less than favourable. The quality of care is another advantage of medical schemes. The doctors and hospitals that medical schemes refer their clients to must meet certain standards as prescribed by the law in any location a medical scheme might operate within. This fact alone encourages a medical scheme to provide the best medical care that it can. Most care givers associated with medical schemes are private clinics, doctors, and specialists. There are over 10 such health insurance companies in Zimbabwe.
“I have had lots of friends who've been affected by Aids and a very good friend of mine,