Good morning world. As I sit here gathering my thoughts for the day, I have been thinking about a call I received a few days ago. A woman I will call Susan left a very distressed message about how she and her husband had applied for life insurance, and her claim was rejected due to ” a history of treatment for severe trichotillomania.” Now the interesting thing is, her husband has a pre-existing heart condition, but they approved his application!
Susan does not, nor ever has, dealt with trichophagia, the ingestion of hair. So why would they deny her coverage? There really is no other life-threatening complication (maybe suicide, if one was depressed enough – but would that actually be from TTM or depression…? ) that I can think of.
I do have another friend who applied for life insurance and was rejected due to having a family history of depression, even though he himself had never been treated for it. He simply went to a different carrier, and got approval at the second company.
I would love to know if anyone else has had insurance problems, whether it be health or life, when claiming that they had trichotillomania. It’s been in the back of my mind for quite some time to collect information and work to address this issue.
I guess the big problem is – what really IS trich? No-one really knows at this point the best way to classify it, mainly due to the fact we don’t have a clear picture of the underlying biology. Until we have more data, I think this will continue to be an issue. OCD and Tourettes have both been proven to be neurobiological, and treatment is insurable. I would love to see the same for trich.
But we need serious scientific research, which takes money. The good news is – TLC has a Research Fund, that funds important seminal projects in the field. So if you happen to have some money that you would like to put to work in service of reducing suffering, there’s a great place to put it! For more information on this simply email me directly or call the TLC office and ask for Jennifer Raikes or myself.
What else – working to change my diet a bit, slowly so it will stick. That is one thing I HAVE learned: solid, real change is usually incremental – like a flower petal opening. Cold turkey approaches have never worked for me – until I was totally ready and willing, so at that point it really wasn’t “cold turkey,” just a relief.
I have a few other patterns I am working to establish - like writing a few paragraphs each day, and making sure to exercise or at least do some serious stretching 4 days out of 7.
After all that I have experienced and accomplished, these are very easy – yet also hard at the same time! But the good news is that many, many tiny changes over time, add up to transformation.
So have a great day!
Love to all, Christina
6 Comments
..just a note..my daughter suffers from trich, and the first time we got her a wig, my insurance company paid for it. the next time, i just went ahead and paid for it, sent in the receipts as per the first time,, and our claim was rejected, because it was not a condition brought on by drugs,(chemo) or a physiological disorder, such as alopecia. I took her to a hairstylist to have her older wig cut and re-styled, and he told us about Wigs for Kids,Canada. He was able to get her a new wig, free of charge!! Now, she is 19, and no longer eligible, so it is an expense she(we) will have to deal with until such time, she may not need one. She is currently taking NAC, n-acetylcistene(sp), and she remarks that the urge to pull seems to be waning a bit.
Unfortuanately, there are no CBT therapists in the area…the psychiatrists she has seen, all offer drug therapy..and it does not work.
thank you for listening…
donna neufeld…
Truly said..Great post. Really good perspective on the subject and very well written, this certainly has put a spin on my day, many thanks and keep up the good work.
http://www.onlyinsurance.com/
Unfortunately most insurance carriers wont take someone if they are considered a high risk.
Ohio Life Insurance
My daughter was denied health insurance after her father died. We obtained insurance under Ky’shigh risk pool but they won’t cover her treatment because they consider trichotillomania a behavior problem.
I didn’t know much about Trich before coming here, so really, thank you for your insight.
Insurance won’t pay for wigs for trichsters. They will pay for wigs if you have cancer. Life insurance company rejects you. Why? easy–cancer is not chronic.with cancer you may get better: your hair will grow back, they don’t have to pay for another wig. 2 you may not get better,you die, they don’t have to pay for another wig. You have trich? they have to pay for your wigs for the rest of your life. how many, how often, doesn’t matter to them. words like chronic and co morbid will cause insurances to reject you.It’s not right but that’s the way it is. all about the $$$$.