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Ex-addicts do not get insurance

Addicts must have been drug-free for five years before they can take out insurance. – Stigmatization, says outreach manager Tommy Husebye.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

- This is the worst I've heard. How do they find out that someone has been a drug addict before, Tommy Husebye erupts when Ny Tid presents him with the information that insurance companies in Norway impose five years of quarantine on former drug addicts before they can sign personal insurance contracts.

Husebye is the leader of the National Association for Outdoor Contacts, which represents around 250 field workers who work on street level with drug addicts in Norway. He works daily in the outdoor contact in Fredrikstad.

- This testifies to an attitude that says; once abusing, always abusing, he continues.

The head of the Storting's social committee is also appalled:

- I did not know this. After all, drug addicts are considered almost non-human; they meet the wall everywhere, says Frps John Alvheim.

5 year quarantine

Active drug users do not receive any insurance whatsoever, and no insurance is provided until five years have passed after a person has been declared intoxicated.

- That's right, we do not give life insurance to former drug addicts until they have been drug-free for at least five years. Even then, it can be difficult for them to get insurance from us, says information manager Per Ivar Sandvik in Storebrand Livsforsikring.

- Nor do we provide insurance until the person has been drug-free for five years. You can say that five years is a long time, but this has nothing to do with stigma, says information director for insurance, Kjerstin Hauk-Hansen, in Gjensidige NOR.

SpareBank 1 and Norske Liv also practice quarantine for former drug users.

- After a five-year waiting period, we make an overall assessment before we decide whether the person in question receives insurance from us and how high the premiums will be. If the former drug addict is then at work and has a permanent residence, the chances of the person in question increase, explains deputy manager Øivind Bull in Storebrand.

Detailed form

Common to the insurance companies Ny Tid has contacted is that they follow the recommendations given by Nemda for health assessments. The tribunal consists of representatives from the insurance companies, as well as two representatives from the Norwegian Medical Association.

- The reason for the waiting period is the risk of health problems, illness and relapse associated with substance abuse. However, it is not only in this context that we practice quarantine. If you have had cancer, you can have a waiting period from zero to five years, depending on the type of cancer you have had. The same applies to heart disease or if the insurance applicant has, for example, tried to commit suicide several times, points out Stein Kjennvold, who represents Gjensidige NOR in the Nemda for health assessments.

When asked how insurance companies can know if a person has been a drug addict in the past, he answers:

- First, a potential customer must fill out a detailed form where he or she must answer detailed questions about everything from drug use to health and illness. When you sign the form, you also give consent for us to go to the person's doctor to get additional information.

consent Statement

This statement of consent thus gives the insurance companies the opportunity to dig deeper into the potential customer's health history, something everyone Ny Tid has spoken to on the occasion of the case refers to.

- With the declaration of consent, the doctor can revoke the duty of confidentiality. Nevertheless, the doctor may refuse to provide information to us, but this happens very rarely, says Stein Kjennvold, and adds that if the doctor does not want to provide the necessary information, the insurance company can reject the application from the potential customer.

- To a certain extent, one can probably say that the doctor can be caught by the declaration of consent, admits department head Terje Vigen in the Norwegian Medical Association's health policy department.

- But the doctor must still, possibly together with the patient or the potential insurance customer, assess whether the information the insurance company requests is relevant. It is therefore to some extent up to the individual doctor's discretion to assess what goes on to the companies, he continues.

Vegen is not aware of whether the medical association has entered into the issues around waiting periods for drug addicts.

- But I do not disagree that five years is a long quarantine period. When it comes to the Nemda for health assessments, we have been there for 6-7 years, but I do not know if the Norwegian Medical Association's representatives were involved in preparing the recommendations on the waiting period for drug addicts, Vigen explains.

- Our representatives have been appointed as professionals and have not bound a mandate from the Norwegian Medical Association to assert special positions, he adds.

- Lugubre methods

- I do not want the public to know about my state of health. When it comes to drug addicts, they are already stigmatized. But the insurance companies' lugubrious business practices against people who are down, only fit into the picture I already have of them, he says.

An attempt by Ny Tid to ask why the risk of death and injury in traffic does not mean that everyone who drives a car has to go out with higher premiums or get waiting periods such as drug addicts, is flatly rejected in the insurance industry:

- The comparison with ordinary drivers is absurd. There are two million people driving a car in Norway, and only 10.000 drug addicts, says deputy manager Øivind Bull in Storebrand.

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