Australian AIDS Group to Challenge Bank on Discrimination Allegations

A national AIDS organization in Australia will seek talks with the Commonwealth Bank over claims it breached anti-discrimination laws by refusing mortgage insurance claims to policy holders who die of the virus. The Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations (AFAO) said that it would ask the bank to explain its actions and, if a legally acceptable explanation was not forthcoming, it would take the matter to relevant federal ministers and the Insurance Council of Australia, AFAO executive director Don Baxter said.

A report in Monday's Sydney Morning Herald said the bank's Mortgage Protection Policy allowed the bank to withhold payment of a claim if the policy holder's death "is in any way associated with AIDS or . . . HIV or any AIDS-related condition." The clause applied even if the policyholder was not diagnosed with the condition when the insurance was obtained, the report said.

Baxter said the bank would be entitled to specifically exclude people with HIV/AIDS from the policy only if it could show they were making a disproportionate number of claims. "If they can demonstrate that people with HIV and AIDS are making proportionally higher claims then they are allowed not to provide that service," he said. "But the evidence has to be there. The onus is on them to provide that statistical data."

The Commonwealth Bank said it was not guilty of discrimination because it offered other policies, at higher premiums, to cover people who may become infected with AIDS in the future. "If people want a policy that includes AIDS coverage, provided they go through the underwriting, they can get a more comprehensive policy," said Peter Beck, general manager of insurance and investments.

Beck said the Mortgage Protection Policy was intended as a simple policy that did not require policyholders to undergo medical tests. "We only ask three questions to exclude any pre-existing medical conditions people may have. We don't even distinguish between smokers and non-smokers," he said. He said it should be made clear that people who already had AIDS or HIV would not be able to obtain any kind of mortgage protection insurance.

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