Yes, and it happens most often because the application went to a carrier with no product for HIV-positive applicants at all. Detectable viral load, poor adherence and significant co-morbidities also produce declines.
Declines in this category are common, and the reason usually has more to do with where the application went than with the applicant.
The most common cause
Most carriers still do not write HIV. Applying to one of them produces a decline that says nothing about your insurability and everything about their product range. This is why applying at random in this category is actively harmful — the decline is recorded in the MIB and visible to the next carrier, without the context.
The genuine underwriting reasons
- Detectable viral load, or a pattern of viral rebound
- A prescription record showing interrupted treatment
- Low or declining CD4 count
- Significant co-morbidities — hepatitis B or C co-infection, cardiovascular disease, kidney impairment, a cancer history
- Age outside the carrier’s band, which commonly starts at 30 and stops at 65
Is a decline permanent?
No. It reflects the file as it stood on that date at that carrier. Sustained suppression, documented adherence and time all change it, and a different carrier may reach a different answer on the same day.
What to do about one
Find out the actual reason, which you are entitled to ask for. Then approach the market deliberately rather than repeatedly — the argument of what to do after a decline. Guaranteed issue remains available regardless, as a floor.
The full treatment of this topic is on HIV.