Sensitively presented with compelling characters, this documentary is yet another reminder that people’s lives and health should not be commodities or otherwise stamped with a price tag.

This is really quite a thought-provoking documentary that, though focussed on gay men who died of AIDS (or GRID) early on, could apply to anyone who has insurance policies that make them worth more dead than alive. From the perspective of an innovator in this financial sector, Scott Page, this explores just how poverty-stricken some of the initial sufferers of this disease were. Often alone, jobless and homeless with their scant resources going to pay medical bills, someone hit on the idea of selling already held insurance policies to investors in return for a percentage of the insured sum to be paid immediately. For many with months to live, this presented what appeared to be a golden opportunity to live out what was left of their lives in more comfort and then once they had died, well what need had they for a payout? Win - win? Well initially, and given the indifference and/or hostility of the US Government, this proved to be a crucial lifeline for many and on the face of it wasn’t as venal as you might think. As time progressed, though, and the triple therapy treatment began to emerge towards the end of the 1990s, the now recovering patients and people like Page found themselves facing the ire of the quick-buck merchants who were annoyed that these men weren’t dying on-cue any more. If it weren’t so serious, it’d be funny. Along the way we encounter some other, quite charact…

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