Turned down for life insurance

[Afewquestions]

I have a history of depression and taling anti-depressants. Other than that i am fit and well and cope well on a day-to-day basis. I work full time and so I recently applied for life insurance as worry about DS future if i were to die and DH were left to pay mortgage alone. I received a letter today saying in view of a history of depression they are unable to insure me. I just wondered if anyone else had experienced this? It feels like discrimination but not sure whether to take it any further? I first thought maybe i had a higher chance of suicide but their policy does not pay out for suicide so that cannot be the reason why. Feel very embarrassed and yet again wish i did not have something like this on my medical records!

OMG...I'm really shocked by this I'll b interested to hear if there is anyone else! X x

Thanks i am glad its just not me

Oh, hon, that must be so stressful! I checked on the Mind website for you, and it looks like it's quite common (shameful on the part of the blood sucking insurers!) www.mind.org.uk/help/social_factors/money_services_explained/insurance#Life

They have a legal phone no so if you're in England or Wales, you could call and see whether it'd be worth getting a letter from your GP counteracting their decline to insure (eg that you should have a normal lifespan), or what to do next.

Exact same thing happened to me a couple of years back, like you i thought the same the only risk of death is suicide and they dont pay out for that anyway so i didnt understand why i was turned down. Have not tried it with any other company as i assumed it would probably be the same outcome. It really upsets me as with two small children i just wanted my hubby is get enough money to pay the mortgage if i was to die.

I have life insurance and I told them all my history with antidepressants etc. I do have to pay a much higher premium than dh though.

I too have to pay a much higher premium because of my PND diagnosis nearly 5 years ago.
I've had one application 'suspended' for a year before it would start, which seemed a bit odd. Obviously if I survived the year (this was only about a year ago!) then I'd be ok to insure after that...???

Omg another shocked MN here. I investigated life insurance seriously about 4 yrs ago and I wasn't turned down (I didn't take it up at the time because it excluded suicide ). Presumably I would be turned down now if I applied.

Thanks for the link muddypuddles it was very helpful. Its all quite strange i ticked the box requesting to see my GP report before it was sent to the insurance company but this didn't happen.. Its all very strange as the gp said they were not informed that i wanted to see the report and do not have a copy, and the insurance company will not send me the report. From what i have been reading they need to be able to medically justify their decision for it to be lawful so need to find out exactly what was in the letter!

Apparently statistics show that average life expectancy is lower for people who have/had depression, i.e. us depressives will die earlier due to poor health ( excluding sucide) hence are a higher financial risk to insurers.
As other posters have said, you can get cover but at a higher premimum incurred. Similar experiences abound with travel insurance too.