Cash Before Death: The AIDS-Era Viatical Settlement Story

The Oscar-shortlisted documentary Cashing Out traces how viatical settlements—private investors buying dying AIDS patients’ life-insurance policies for cash—shaped a morbid market, told through Greg and Scott Page and activists like DeeDee Chamblee; it reveals the relief and dignity it offered some, the costs for others, and how antiretroviral therapy shifted fortunes, highlighting ongoing healthcare precarity and systemic inequality.