Hello everyone,

My name is Dave. I have been positive for 3 years now and in good
health. I have maintained a undetectable viral load since 2 weeks of
starting my meds and my CD4 count has never been lower than 383 and
has been as high as 650.

I worked for a Forture 500 company for 3 years and left the company
to start my own business. I am a consultant for my former employer.
I have been self employed for 18 months now and currently have health
insurance with United Healthcare as a group plan. The coverage is
currently in COBRA and is due to expire April 30, 2004.

I am so fustrated attempting to secure a new health insurance
policy. I tried to obtain another group plan through SASE an
organization for the self employed. I received a call back from my
representative and she announced that they would not be able to cover
me. The insurer was Mega Life and Health. I called Mega Life today
just out of curiosity to find out why they declined covering me since
I have an existing policy. They did not have me on record. Livid as
I was, I called SASE to find out why they hadn't submitted the
application to Mega Life and let them decide. Internally they "felt
it wouldn't be approved" due to being HIV+. Nothing in their
underwriting guide which I reviewed when I signed up had any
stipulations or restrictions regarding HIV or AIDS. I have requested
my application back and I will send it to Mega Directly for their
answer.

In the meantime, I am told with my current "pre-existing condition"
purchasing an "individual" policy they will not cover me for the pre-
existing condition for 12 months even though I currently have valid
health insurance that has been in force for over 4 years
consecutively. I thought if I can prove a previous policy was in
force for their exemption period, they would waive the pre-existing
condition clause.