AIDS AND THE LAW

The Rehabilitation Act, Section 504,denies federal funding to those programs which discriminate because of physical handicap. This Act applies to those employers who receive federal funding, or are employed under government contracts.

A U.S. Department of Justice memo dated June 25, 1986, projected that AIDS would probably be considered a disabling condition based upon its effects on victims. The competency of the employee, and not his ability to transmit the disease, would determine whether a person was handicapped.

The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 expanded the Rehabilitation Act to include persons with infectious diseases such as AIDS. Section 9 of this Act states that such persons are considered handicapped and thus protected under Section 504 as long as they do not pose a direct threat to other employees and are able to perform their job duties.

Most states, counties and municipalities also have laws or ordinances forbidding discrimination on the basis of physical handicap. These laws supplement federal laws such as the Rehabilitation Act

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ce companies have been found to screen individual health insurance policies with HIV tests. In addition to the 9 million individual health insurance policies, about 66 58% of all life insurance policies are individually owned. Health insurers justify the practice of HIV testing on the grounds that the anticipated costs warrant attempts to limit expenses in order to protect the economic stability of the health insurance industry. Unfortunately for HIV-positive individuals, only 11 states currently have any form of high-risk insurance pools. These states are Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. California and South Carolina are currently considering legislation on this issue. By 1989, only California, FLorida, Maine, and the District of Columbia had completely banned insurers from utilizing HIV tests as an underwriting factor. Five other state insurance departments have enforced a policy of prohibiting HIV testing or inquiries into prior test results. A group of insurers challenged the District of Columbia's ban on HIV-antibody screening as unconstitutional in American Council of Life Insurance v. District ofColumbia. The companies arg
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 6532
Approximate Pages = 26 (250 words per page)

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