Urgent action needed to stop people with mental health problems paying 'sky high' insurance prices 8 February at 10:57AM in Insurance & life assurance 4 replies 177 views

MSE_Emily

Urgent action is needed from the financial watchdog to prevent vulnerable people from being overcharged for insurance products. Charity the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI), which was set-up by MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis, has issued the calls after finding people with mental health problems are being charged 27 times more for insurance than non-sufferers...

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Urgent action needed to stop people with mental health problems paying 'sky high' insurance prices, says charity

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DullGreyGuy

Come on guys... you can achieve better article writing.

You are presumably taking about Travel Insurance? Maybe Life? 

I would love to see your evidence that anyone with mental health issues are being charged more for Home or Pet insurance let alone the claimed 27 times as much. 

Weighty1

DullGreyGuy said:

Come on guys... you can achieve better article writing.

You are presumably taking about Travel Insurance? Maybe Life? 

I would love to see your evidence that anyone with mental health issues are being charged more for Home or Pet insurance let alone the claimed 27 times as much. 

For life cover cases it is possible that premiums could be that much higher, however, it would almost always be due to a young client age, non-smoker and a high sum assured cases were the standard premium is low based on this.  If the premium is then loaded on a per mille basis it can cause eye watering premium increases.  I've seen premiums of £5/month increase to well over £100 or at least I would have had the client gone ahead.

It's worth noting though, this would only happen were there is a background and probably a relatively recent background of things like suicidal ideation or severe mental health conditions such as psychosis, multiple personality disorder etc with a lack of stability to the condition. 

This article is basically a bit of clickbait to make the situation look far worse than it is.  I've covered hundreds of clients with ongoing treatment for depression/stress/anxiety with either the standard premium or a small loading being applied.

DullGreyGuy

Weighty1 said:
This article is basically a bit of clickbait to make the situation look far worse than it is.  

Hence the comment that they can write a better article... there are many classes of insurance where health of the insured isnt asked about but the article is unclear if they are implying that, for example, they are paying more for Breakdown and Home Emergency because their mental health conditions stop them shopping around  (similarly to the reason for banning price walking in Home and Motor because older vulnerably customers typically paid more) or if they mean only a small number of classes of insurance and its just shoddy/sensationalist journalism 

Weighty1

DullGreyGuy said:

Weighty1 said:
This article is basically a bit of clickbait to make the situation look far worse than it is.  

Hence the comment that they can write a better article... there are many classes of insurance where health of the insured isnt asked about but the article is unclear if they are implying that, for example, they are paying more for Breakdown and Home Emergency because their mental health conditions stop them shopping around  (similarly to the reason for banning price walking in Home and Motor because older vulnerably customers typically paid more) or if they mean only a small number of classes of insurance and its just shoddy/sensationalist journalism 

That's my point though, even with insurance classes were mental health could affect the premium it very, VERY rarely does.  In fact it does give the example of severe bipolar disorder in the article and for people with this it's not unusual for it to go hand in hand with risky behaviours such as alcohol misuse/abuse or drug use. 

I was in effect agreeing with you though.