Insurance wasn’t an issue in the case of Raskin’s son. The National Alliance of Life Companies, a trade group representing life and health insurance companies, declined to comment on the exclusion. That’s why she says she doesn’t favor eliminating the suicide exclusion, but rather shortening it to a period - she hasn’t determined exactly how long - that reflects how quickly self-harm can arise and doesn’t treat suicide “like fraud.” She is beginning an informal lobbying and education campaign with the goal, she said in a planning document, of compelling the life insurance industry to thoroughly consider “the new and constantly updated information about what we know about depression and other mental health issues that contribute to the act of suicide.”įrench concedes that “a small number” of people may attempt suicide to try to funnel money to family members. “This is why I’ve come to the conclusion that this was extraordinarily impulsive,” French said.Īs a claims investigator reviews her case, French said she is certain she will be denied because she wrote plainly in a required affidavit that “My husband died by suicide at our home,” and because his death fell - by three months - within the exclusion period.įrench, who has worked internationally designing programs for vulnerable children and youth, said she has enough money to make ends meet but wants to help others avoid the “re-victimization” of enduring a loved one’s suicide, followed by an insurance denial. “And the reason for that,” he said, is “suicide is almost invariably an impulsive act.” But Columbia University psychiatry professor Paul Appelbaum - a former association president - considers it “very unlikely” that many people are motivated to end their lives for an insurance payout “in a premeditated way.” The American Psychiatric Association doesn’t have a position on the insurance policy restrictions. “My sense of this is that right now we are making our mistakes on the side of denying coverage to people who did nothing that is morally blameworthy.” Hall, who has written in opposition to the clauses. “It’s not like they’re burning their house down for the insurance money,” said University of Louisville law professor Timothy S. Opposition to the suicide loophole comes from diverse quarters. It said the exclusion generally “helps balance price affordability with prudent risk management and strengthens claims paying ability for all customers.”Ĭompanies also deny benefits for other reasons, such as dangerous or criminal behavior, or when a claimant lies about their health status. Lincoln National declined to comment on French’s case, citing privacy considerations. “Shelby is raising a truly important issue for everyone to look at.” “I do believe there is something off about the underlying assumption that someone would purchase a life insurance policy in order to commit suicide and have the proceeds go to their family,” the congressman said. His son left a farewell note that said: “Please forgive me. To Raskin, the exclusion seems to reflect a view of suicide that has been overtaken by a contemporary understanding of depression as a serious disease. Instead, the beneficiary receives a refund of the paid premiums plus interest, which for French would mean a few thousand dollars compared with $2 million for herself and her son. The clause specifies that the company won’t pay benefits “if the insured commits suicide” within two years of the policy’s issuance. Both policies included a “suicide exclusion” common to life insurance but that French - supported by her congressman, Jamie Raskin, whose 25-year-old son, Tommy, took his life last New Year’s Eve - considers anachronistic and needlessly cruel.
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