AIDS and the Limits of Insurability

Insurance is a technique to redistribute the economic consequences of loss from victims to the entire group. AIDS appears to lack the essential market and actuarial criteria of an insurable risk, without compromise to civil liberties or fiscal viability. Issues surrounding identification and classification of persons at risk of contracting the disease are most contentious. Accommodation, especially for health insurance, may be possible through mandated pools and other public and legal actions.

Author(s): J. D. Hammond; Arnold F. Shapiro

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Volume 64, Issue S1 (pages 143–167)
Published in 1986