A Canadian woman recently lost her health disability insurance benefits over photos of her found on Facebook. Due to a diagnosis of major depression, Nathalie Blanchard was on sick leave from her job at IBM. However, her payments stopped this fall after her insurance agent apparently found several pictures of her in which she appeared to be having fun – at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a getaway vacation. However, having depression doesn’t mean you are depressed all the time. Depressed individuals can have fleeting moments of joy, only to return back to their feelings of sadness afterwords. In her own defense, Ms. Blanchard states it was her physician’s advice to try and interject some fun into her life. She is currently working with her lawyer to regain her benefits. [via Yahoo! News]
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Tags: depression, Facebook, insurance, job, major depression, Mental health
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
December 4th, 2009 at 4:50 am
Of course!! Leave it to the all mighty and powerful insurance companies to dictate your life! Because they are doctors and they know exactly what to expect from every diagnosis and they follow it to the letter!!! No one should ever, ever have that much power in your life. They want boat loads of proof that you even have a diagnosis that they my have to pay for. Then when you’re making an attempt to get better, so they don’t have to pay anymore they see it as an attempt to rip them off. Insurance companies are a joke and they should be ashamed. How do they sleep at nite???
December 4th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Disability is the new welfare! Getting sick and tired of hearing – oh she’s fat – depressed etc etc. Knock it off, get a life and a job and support yourself. Maybe then u will be to tired to be depressed! I know I am! I work!
December 4th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
who cares?This is not the fist or last person that this situation will happen to.
December 5th, 2009 at 3:05 am
I am sorry for the moment!there must be strong control over the insurance companies.it begins by insurance campanies and continues to capture other organizations that are depand on personal characterstics.i hope every body has a burden to tackle those guilty persons.
December 5th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
To clarify, this woman has NOT lost her health insurance. What she HAS lost is her monthly private disability insurance payments most likely coming via the employee benefits package provided through her most recent employer. (Another very unlikely possibility is the loss of government disability pension payments which are provided only to those citizens with highly documented severe, long-term physical or mental incapacities, which is not the case here.) The private insurance companies providing employee benefit coverage are in no way connected to the universal public Health Insurance plans provided by each Canadian province and territory to all its citizens and landed immigrants whose principal residence is located in that province or territory. Such citizens and landed immigrants lose their health insurance coverage ONLY when they are away from their province or territory for more than half of a year, more or less (in Ontario, I believe the number of days required to be physically present in the province in any calendar year is 158). In certain situations, such as employment requiring regular short-term international travel, this requirement can be waived. When a resident moves from one province or territory to another, he or she instantly becomes eligible for the new jurisdiction’s universal health insurance coverage upon giving notification of the move. I am sympathetic to the plight of the woman in question, but it is important to understand which coverage she has actually lost. In no way has she lost her right to visit a doctor or be served by a hospital or medical clinic in her province or territory of residency and have all medical costs met by that jurisdiction’s public health plan.
December 5th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Colin – Thanks for your thoughtful reply. You are absolutely correct. She did NOT lose her state health insurance benefits, she lost her private disability insurance benefits. I have corrected the post accordingly.
December 7th, 2009 at 2:29 am
thank’s for the expireince that shared to me,…………….i want to advice that only trusting God is the only way to overcome all trials that is a natural experienced because we are all sinners we all near to temptation but God is always there to help us, God never give a problem that we can never overcome that’s a challenge, more prayer more power. thanks and i wait for more story.it’s a ministry to inspired others.thank you………………………….