Compass has recently launched a campaign to achieve fair treatment for people who have hepatitis C. ...
Compass has recently launched a campaign to achieve fair treatment for people who have hepatitis C. While there are industry guidelines on negative test results - the same as with HIV in that they are ignored - its survey points out that there are no industry guidelines on how hepatitis C suffers should be underwritten. The alleged result is a huge disparity between different companies which means that many customers may be being treated unfairly.
So why is this an issue for hepatitis C? When the amended Disability Discrimination Act was being discussed in Parliament the same question arose over people who had cancer. In that case, cancer sufferers who had been given the 'all clear' still found they could not get life insurance or had to pay a lot for it.
The problem was that each cancer is different and the challenge was to prove people were being treated fairly. Swiss Re produced evidence based actuarial analysis that showed how the industry had refined its risk assessment to enable people who would not previously have had cover to buy insurance and how this was calculated. The result was that Parliament was content that the evidence was real and people were being treated fairly. There is a term called 'the right to underwrite', but with rights come responsibilities, which are upheld through law.
Hepatitis C is an infection that causes inflammation of the liver. Most people do not realise they have it and many doctors fail to diagnose it. It is passed on through infected blood, so carriers have often had blood transfusions or intravenous medical treatment, were drug users who shared needles, or had sex with an infected person.
Around one in four people who become infected with hepatitis C will get rid of the virus naturally. However, most people who become infected will have it for a long time. This may affect them in different ways: some people will stay well but about one in five people may develop severe liver damage. Treatments for hepatitis C are continually improving. A form of drug therapy is available that can cure the infection in about half of those treated.
Like cancer, it is complicated and affects a lot of people. The Department of Health is set to launch a hepatitis C awareness campaign which means more people will be tested and those who are positive will want an idea about of how it affects their insurability.
The challenge is to produce information for people with hepatitis C that gives them confidence that insurers are fairly underwriting the risk on a proper evidence base.
The industry needs to justify what it does to restore confidence.
- Richard Walsh is managing director of SPPR Consulting.
