Twelve of the nation's top health insurance companies have received letters from a gay/lesbian civil rights group asking them to release their policies for covering organ transplants for patients with HIV.
'We are hearing from more and more people with HIV who are being denied life-saving transplants, despite medical and scientific standards. These insurance companies have a duty to clearly tell people where they stand,' the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said in a press release announcing the new drive.
Lambda Legal said its HIV Project has worked with a number of people who were denied coverage for transplants simply because they have HIV-even though more than a decade of scientific and medical research shows that organ transplants for people with HIV are effective and safe.
The organization, the oldest and largest legal organization in the US dedicated to the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV and AIDS, sent letters in mid-November to 12 of the top health insurance companies, asking for copies of their policies for people with HIV. The companies include Assurant, Aetna, Aflac, Anthem, BlueCare, Cigna, Healthnet, Humana, PacifiCare, United Health, Wellpoint and Wellchoice. None had responding with existing or new policies when the press release was issued on November 30.
'HIV itself isn't necessarily a death sentence any more-but it becomes one when health insurance companies refuse to let people have the transplants they need,' said Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal.
Cathcart cited the case of a 46-year-old Pennsylvania man with HIV and Hepatitis C who was denied a transplant even thought he had been accepted as a candidate by the Thomas E. Starzl Transplant Institute in Pittsburgh. William Gene Gough's transplant request for coverage was denied because Medicaid said the transplant was not 'necessary.'
Lambda appealed on Gough's behalf and an administrative law judge reversed the decision within days. 'William Jean Gough got a new liver 8 months ago, and he might not be alive today without it,' Cathcart said.
Prior to winning Gough's appeal, Lambda Legal had been successful in persuading Kaiser Permanente to overturn its decision to deny a kidney transplant to John Carl, a Colorado man with HIV.
'We have no idea exactly how many other people with HIV are in William and John's situation, but we know that these insurance companies have millions of customers,' Cathcart said. 'We are determined to get these insurance companies on record so that people with HIV know whether they'll be covered when their lives depend on it-and so that the public knows just where these companies stand.'
Lambda Legal Web site: www.lambdalegal.org.
