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Get Insurance Before a Birth

by Ron Lieber
Tuesday, March 27, 2007provided by

If you're a woman thinking of starting a family, think about buying life insurance before you even get a positive pregnancy test.

Life insurers like to see a clean bill of health as part of an application. But between 6.5% and 12.9% of women experience minor or major depression at a particular point in time during the first year after having a baby, according to a 2005 survey published by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which looked at the other existing research.

More from The Wall Street Journal Online: • Life Insurance: How to Avoid a Rude Surprise • Why Generic Doesn't Always Mean Cheap • Putting 'Care' Back in Health Care

While postpartum depression is generally temporary and readily treatable (if recognized), insurers tend to look at women who have it as higher risks. Life insurance, in its simplest form, pays out upon death, and insurers think moms with the blues are elevated suicide risks. So if you apply for life insurance right after a diagnosis of depression, you could pay twice the lowest possible rate, or more.

This infuriates new moms, who wonder why they're being penalized for proactively improving their mental health while depressed women who go undiagnosed get preferred rates. Playing logician with the insurance company won't get you very far though.

Simply avoid the issue altogether by shopping for life insurance before you attempt to conceive, and get a policy where the premium is guaranteed to stay the same.

If you're already caught up in this issue, enlist your therapist's help in sending a written request for a better deal, especially if your treatment is complete. Many insurers will consider appeals.

Note that lying on an insurance application is a bad idea. In the event of your untimely death, the insurer could launch an inquiry and revoke your policy.

Write to Ron Lieber at ron.lieber@wsj.com

Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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