MHCA ATTACKS INSURERS’ REJECTION OF ANTIDEPRESSANT USERS

The Mental Health Council of Australia (MHCA) has complained to the country’s human rights commissioner that local insurers are refusing to cover individuals who have been prescribed antidepressants. The MHCA cited Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) recent rejection of a woman who applied for mortgage income protection cover on the grounds that she had been treated with an antidepressant after the birth of her child. It noted that since up to 15% of women suffered a “significant depressive episode” within three to six months of giving birth and depression was the fourth-most-common problem treated by local general practitioners, turning down individuals on such grounds was ill-informed and unreasonable. A spokesperson for CBA said that proper procedures had not been following in the quoted case, and that the woman had since been asked for further medical information to assess again whether to offer cover. The MHCA has said that life assurance and income protection are among the covers affected.