Susan sought help for postpartum depression a few years ago after her second child was born. She went to a psychiatrist for a few sessions and was prescribed Prozac. She took the Prozac for a few months and then weaned off it as she began to gradually feel like herself again. Is this simply an episode from her past or can it be an ongoing medical concern that causes her to join the ranks of the difficult to insure or the uninsured? The answer is complicated and varies from state to state and insurer to insurer.

Chances are if it was a mild and brief episode of depression, most individuals will have no troubles finding insurance. If an individual is part of a group policy, it is unlikely to cause any concern at all. If, however, you need to purchase an individual policy the scenario might be quite different. Mild depression might not cause coverage to be denied but could result in an increased cost for coverage. Moderate to severe depression often results in a denial of individual coverage.

According to a 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation study of the individual health care market, an insurer can deny you coverage based upon your medical history if you take any type of prescription drugs to treat anxiety or depression. It can also deny coverage based upon a history of counseling for anxiety, depression, eating/sleeping disorders, or grief. According to Karen Pollitz the Georgetown researcher who co-authored the Kaiser study, “People who’ve always had group health insurance are completely unprepared when they’re forced to seek coverage in this (individual health insurance) market,” says Pollitz. “They think they’re going to get the same coverage they had in their jobs, except they’ll just have to pay a little more money. It’s absolutely not like that at all. The individual health insurance market is unpredictable, inconsistent and expensive.”

In practice, whether or not an individual insurer decides whether or not to deny coverage based upon a brief mild depressive episode varies wildly. Individual insurance is granted on a case by case basis and many might be comfortable with a brief episode of counseling several years ago while others might find a candidate in that position an overly risky customer.