3/1/2023 0 Comments Jamie raskin son illnessThe National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. “This falling in front of me, it seems really unjust and I feel I can’t let it lie.” “I plan to build a bigger group who sees the issue in this,” she said. She periodically chats on social media with others who have lost relatives or friends to suicide. It’s the same reason, the agency’s statement continued, “why life insurance is not issued to people who are terminally ill or may exclude death by specific diseases that a person is known to have.”įrench is taking time off from work to grieve, tend to her son who is in middle school, and pursue her campaign. It has to do with avoiding the circumstance where someone takes out a policy, pays a single premium, then commits suicide.” “However,” the administration said in an email response to The Sun, “we do note that the reason for the suicide exclusion has nothing to do with morality or social/moral/modern views on suicide. The collage includes excerpts of a murder mystery he was writing. Shelby made a collage with her late husband's pic and various writings and illustrations. While suicides haven’t gone up during the pandemic, there have been alarming trends such as a rise in attempted suicides by adolescent girls that is widely attributed to isolation from teachers, friends and other traditional forms of support. Although there is disagreement over the cause of the increase, many researchers cite an increasing lack of community or family connections. Suicide rates rose 33% between 19 before falling slightly the past two years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since the suicide of his son - a Harvard law student - Raskin, 60, has said he wants, in any way he can, to ease the stigma still associated with depression.įrench said the insurance industry’s treatment of suicide perpetuates old notions of mental health issues as moral failings. But, he said, “it would be a great thing to have a serious legislative discussion about that rule and whether the line is drawn in the appropriate place.” “I don’t pretend to be a psychiatrist or psychologist,” the former constitutional law professor said. But the congressman said he would like to help French, though he’s not yet sure exactly how. 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.
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