It’s OK Not To Be OK — Unless You Want Life Insurance
There are some good things about being an adult (like unlimited TV and popcorn for dinner) but there are a lot of shit parts too. I do adulting on the daily, but sometimes I kick the adulting up a notch. I am never excited by this. Because adulting is tedious and expensive.
I’m also a person with ADHD, which adds another layer of complexity. That’s because adulting is boring AF and requires lashing of executive function, which is in short supply between my ears.
Tedious + boring
Recently, my husband and I re-visited our Wills, which led to nominating Guardians for our kids, Enduring Powers of Attorney, income protection, and life insurance.
I learned that you can apply for life insurance and income protection through your superannuation fund. For the uninitiated, superannuation is the weird neologism that Australians use to describe money they put aside for retirement. It’s kept in something called SUPER FUNDS (which sound much more exciting than they are) and only accessible after the age of 65 (or when the government gets tired of supporting its citizens during a global pandemic).
Honesty matters
When you’re applying for life insurance, honesty matters. Of course, I disclosed that I have ADHD. That I take medication. That I access therapy.
Imagine my surprise when my super fund informed me that, because of my ADHD, I would have to agree to an exclusion in my policy. Because I have ADHD, I cannot be covered for any illness or injury related to:
- anxiety
- depression
- stress or adjustment disorder
- bipolar disorder
- schizophrenia
- psychosis or PTSD
- post-natal depression
- obsessive-compulsive disorder or
- any eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia
Not so super now, are you?
Impossible! I thought. That’s discriminatory.
Possible, it seems. We went to a broker: a Ken-doll-looking-whipper-snapper who guaranteed us he’d look at all of the funds and find the best possible option for me.
Most people know that one in five of all Australians will experience mental illness in their lifetime. And you probably know the slogans as well as I do:
- It ain’t weak to speak
- RUOK?
- Seek help
- See beyond the stigma
Except that this exclusion literally means that if you’ve ever sought help for a mental health issue, you can’t be covered for any other (even non-related) mental health issue. For life.
Let’s say a woman seeks help for postnatal anxiety, recovers, then experiences a serious illness or an assault. Or a plane crash. The death of a child. Let’s say she develops PTSD as a result of that experience. PTSD which is totally unrelated to her postnatal anxiety.
If that woman gets to the point that she can no longer work, her mental health exclusion means income protection will not cover her. Despite the fact that they’re two totally different illnesses.
If I can’t win, I don’t want to play
Of course, I understand that insurance companies only win when they pay out as little as possible. But what I didn’t know was this: the game is only on if they can win.
As always, the lesson is that the scam is structural. We’re told over and over that it’s OK not to be OK. But it turns out they need to add a disclaimer:
It’s OK not to be OK (unless you ever want to get income protection insurance).
We should all give a shit that this disincentives proactive, preventative health care. It punishes those of us who do seek help — permanently and in one fell swoop.
Again and again, systems put the onus of solving societal problems on the individual. We’re told “if you’re brave, you can access the help you need”. But individuals live inside of a system. And that system that actively punishes each individual who does the responsible thing and seeks help. And it punishes their families for a good measure.
In the end, the Ken-doll-looking-whipper-snapper’s research was for naught. There is no life insurance fund in this country that is willing to cover an ADHD-having human without an exclusion for any and all mental health conditions.
Am I broken? Or is the system?
As it turns out, it doesn’t matter. Because this game wasn’t designed for me to win.
Boots to the ground — or something
If you want to take action, Beyond Blue has some suggestions. But all of them sound like work and none of them sounds like things that’ll make a difference. You can lodge a complaint with the insurance company or the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. If you feel you’ve been discriminated against, you can get in touch with the Australian Human Rights Commission or the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
Or you can internalise the message from the system that it is, in fact, weak to speak. And just stop being so dramatic. Pull up your socks and get over it.
