Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada has begun offering life insurance coverage of more than $3 million for people living with HIV.
The Toronto-based company said Monday that HIV life coverage is also being rolled out in other markets around the world.
The move to sell life insurance to Canadians living with HIV follows rival insurer Manulife’s offer, beginning in April, of insurance of up to $2 million for people between the ages of 30 and 65 who have tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Sun Life rolled out a handful of changes to underwriting practices and product enhancements on Monday, including no longer routinely requiring medical exams, stress ECGs, oral fluid samples, and urine HIV tests for critical illness and life insurance.
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“Sun Life will now only need an application (no fluids or blood samples) from the majority of Canadians applying for these products,” the company said in a statement.
More than three-quarters of the insurer’s critical illness insurance clients and half of its life insurance clients are expected to benefit from the changes.
Kevin Dougherty, president of Sun Life Financial Canada, said the underwriting practices and product enhancements “represent some of the most comprehensive changes made in the industry in over a decade.”