Since 2012, PIAC’s Mental Health and Insurance Project has been tackling systemic problems in the way insurers design, price and offer policies and assess claims to the detriment of people with past or current mental health conditions. These problems have arisen in both life and general insurance products such as income protection, total and permanent disability, death and travel insurance. PIAC has worked with Beyond Blue, Mental Health Australia and SANE Australia to expose these issues and advocate for change.

PIAC, together with its partners in the mental health sector, embarked upon this work having identified longstanding concerns about the barriers facing many people living with mental health conditions when accessing insurance.

This report outlines the progress that has been made in the areas of travel insurance and life insurance, as well as the remaining challenges, to provide an up-to-date overview of issues of mental health discrimination in insurance and options for reform. The report outlines some of the barriers and discrimination faced by those attempting to access and use insurance when they have a mental health condition or a past mental health history, drawing on case data and lived experience of PIAC’s clients through case studies from PIAC’s work over the past decade.