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Can you get life insurance with HIV?

Yes. The individual market reopened to HIV-positive applicants in December 2015 and several carriers now write it. Sustained viral suppression and documented treatment adherence are what the assessment turns on.

For roughly thirty years the answer was no at any price. That changed abruptly rather than gradually, and much of the advice still online describes the market that existed before it.

What changed

Prudential became the first major US carrier to offer individual life insurance to people living with HIV in December 2015. John Hancock followed in April 2016 and published its criteria — ages 30 to 65, face amounts up to $2,000,000, a favourable and stable clinical course, strict adherence and response to antiretroviral therapy, and no significant immunosuppression or co-morbidities.

Read that list again, because it is not a list about HIV. It is a list about treatment adherence and stability. That is the shift.

What matters now

Sustained undetectable viral load, a stable CD4 count and trajectory, an uninterrupted prescription record, time on treatment, and the ordinary factors everyone else is assessed on — build, smoking status, blood pressure.

The practical constraint

Most carriers still do not write this business. That is why a decline from a randomly chosen insurer tells you nothing at all — you may simply have applied somewhere with no product for you. The historical arc is covered in what changed, and when.

This is research, not advice. No Exam Life Insurance Online is an independent publisher, not a carrier or agency, and sells nothing. Underwriting outcomes vary by carrier, by state and by individual file, and carriers revise their guides without notice. Confirm anything that affects a decision with an agent licensed in your state before you apply.

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