Huh? I thought depression was an illness diagnosed by doctors. Not insurance companies like here in the US who ration health care based on cost. But this is Canada, land of health care milk and honey. Huh?
Nathalie Blanchard, 29, has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Que., for the last year and a half after she was diagnosed with major depression. The Eastern Townships woman was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from Manulife, her insurance company, but the payments dried up this fall. When Blanchard called Manulife, the company said that “I’m available to work, because of Facebook,” she told CBC News this week.
She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on the popular social networking site, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday — evidence that she is no longer depressed, Manulife said. Blanchard said she notified Manulife that she was taking a trip, and she’s shocked the company would investigate her in such a manner and interpret her photos that way.
“In the moment I’m happy, but before and after I have the same problems” as before, she said.
Blanchard said that on her doctor’s advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.
She also doesn’t understand how Manulife accessed her photos because her Facebook profile is locked and only people she approves can look at what she posts.
This woman was on employer-provided disability leave, which is done through private insurance. It pays better than federal disability (ie: the equivalent of social security). In that respect, it functions pretty much exactly like the American system – revokable upon a whim and dependent upon which side of the bed the insurance agent slithered out of in the morning.
It was an insurance company that denied the claim not the Canadian help system… Duh!
Well … when you suffer from major depression, you are not supposed to be able to get out of bed.
Her insurance is more of an employment insurance. These insurances are not part of the public health care system in Canada. It’s the same as people getting leave from work because of a back injury and the insurance company figures out the guy is in top shape.
So the story is more about facebook than health care, but nice try! 😉
“She also doesn’t understand how Manulife accessed her photos because her Facebook profile is locked and only people she approves can look at what she posts.”
Ha! Ha! Ha! Anyone who says that only the people that I approve can look at something posted on line really is crazy!
The other truth is somebody she approved probably ratted her out.
A side thought based on me is that if you are depressed you are much better off at work being busy and with other people around than home alone if you can still function.
Home alone can be dangerous. Bad thoughts occur and you are free to act on them.
Lots of people like my wife suffer from depression, and its flip side, mania (aka bipolar disorder). She doesn’t just stay in bed. If the meds are working (this is under a physician’s or psychiatrist’s care), then a bipolar person can have a life again like Ms Blanchard. However, that doesn’t mean they’re cured; it means they can have a normal life for now because the meds are right.
The Canadian insurance company is doing the same slimy stuff American insurers do.
OK, it is obvious that the article submitter/publisher got their facts wrong about the provider of the health insurance in that the provider was a private insurer and not the general health care system.
Please make corrections to your article, given the updated information regarding these facts. It would be the right thing to do.
Thank you.
FaceBook is the single largest data-mining resource out there in the net. Because it’s transversal and it’s “belly” (you know: fat middle/long tail…) is composed of young to middle aged people: ie. marketing nirvana.
#4, Those “cuts” were made by two different groups of Doctors, not the government.
And if you read them, they recomment that women should not have the screenings “automatically,” but they should decide with the advice of their Doctors if they are needed.
The public/private health care spend in Canada is split about 70/30. In the US it’s about 50/50.
BTW, no health care system is all it’s cracked up to be.
And she can go to a bar now and then, drink and have fun and not work, even part time, adapted work…? Sounds bogus to me.
I went through that for a back problem. I am a federal employee but the insurer is private.
They would only cover me for stretches of 3 months at a time when my family doctor said “long term, until I say so”. It took one year before they finally put me on long term with no end date, luckily for me I was back at work within a month after that.
Those HC companies are out there to try and give you as little as possible, what they don’t “get” is that it only makes the whole process worse for the person because it’s tons of added stress. I was more worried if I was going to get a paycheck after 3 months than I was about my back getting better.
I don’t know here situation but from what I read it feels like a big $$$ lawsuit is coming.
NOTE: If the private insurer does not pay you can immediately fall under government care with full medical treatment, but MUCH less money. Still you don’t end up SOL like the US system.
@pedro “And I’m enjoying the cuts already being made in the US in preparations for the healthcare reform. To wit:”
Those cut are being made to scare people into acting on there behalf, they need to stop health care reform so that they can keep the goose that laid the golden egg. Sorry but Public health care has to be an all or nothing solution to work if you try to do a mix and mach the insurance companies will do what they can to screw you over. Health insurance is one of the few places a free market does not bring costs down and product quality up (Than and gas where collusion is the order of the day).
this is why you never give employers your personal email address at any time
nor do you use your real name when signing up for a social network or your primary email
— there are still boatloads of free webmail that can be accessed anywhere with any kind of screen name – sign up for a couple 1. for employment/official stuff (i.e name based addresses) another for – unofficial use i.e personal comm twix loved ones, romantic interests and social networking this would randomly generated i.e
RIAA-peeps-eat-kittens33@webmail.com
just random nonsense you can remember
and never never put your name in association on a public thing like facebook – even if you got it privatized cause that stuff is never private.
and if you have to , have a proffessional network thats not linked to your personal life at all – not even with the friends in person or online
it also helps to make sure your friends know not to tag you in pictures or have your name associated unless its something proper share the improper or the (life and having fun pics) in person.
pedro, there you go again. Instead of substance you have to resort to lies and fabricated bullshit.
Every thing you mentioned is covered under Canadian health care, including abortion, at any age. Not many Americans can say the same thing.
This has NOTHING to do with Canadian health care system whatsoever.
Long term disability is an optional insurance often provided by companies as part of their renumeration package. It covers living expenses, etc., while the employee is disabled. This sort of coverage is NOT provided by the Canadian health care system.
Fabulous – they nailed the bitch for her fraud and now she is shocked, shocked, shocked I say, that someone would dare to accuse her of deceit.
Nothin to see here.
Canadian Health-care is no different than US Health-care but both sides are too stupid to accept the obvious. The only real difference are the classes of people who get good health care vs those who don’t.
In Canada it’s based on who you know. In the US it’s based on how many US presidents you have as friends.
Both sides are full of shit.
this has nothing to do with Cdn gov’t health insurance.
the woman is still covered for MEDICAL treatment.
she is not covered for lost wages.
How can this be? If you listen to all the liberaltards , Canadian health care is the best in the world……LMAO
Pelosi said they were voting for jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Unemployment keeps rising. All they are talking about is “health care”. Obama promised jobs would arrive soon. That was earlier this year. With no jobs people will be dropping like flies pretty soon due to the stresses of having no food and no jobs. These deaths will save trillions as the government will pay less in unemployment insurance and less in health care as pine boxes are cheap. Is this the change you wanted? Well, that’s what you’re getting. For the first time in my life I will be going to get a free Thanksgiving dinner as I have virtually no money. The ONLY thing that matters currently is EMPLOYING AMERICANS. RECALL ALL OF THESE LIARS. Obama and friends can’t even get it’s recovery.gov site right at $18 million dollars spent for a web site. The 20 new employed web site geeks get massive bonuses while even video stores are closing stores in small communities, more lost jobs, lost jobs, lost jobs, lost jobs, and more lost jobs, what the hell is wrong with these idiots babbling on about health care. 85% of the public has it. 7% doesn’t want it. 8% can be insured with a few tweaks, not dumping it all down the toilet.
You shouldn’t even be talking about the Cnadian Health system…
Study France’s System, arguably the best in the world. Or Nordic countries Systems. Real Health care, for the People.
Um Caveat Emptor?
FWIW: i was recently asked by two separate potential clients of small companies (less than 30-though I suspect one might have been asking on behalf of a city agency) as to how they could do bulk scans on facebook accounts to see what, if at all, their employees are “doing” there..
Take heed:
An ear to the ground on this revealed there is a **huge surge** by companies and employers of all sorts and sizes to invade the “privacy” of facebook. (and i use the term privacy with tongue-in-cheek)
They are looking for *any* activity which could possibly “harm the company” or portray them in a bad light.
My translation: Facebook just may end up as the loophole companies need to fire “troublesome” employees while at the same time, effectively shielding
themselves from every company’s greatest fear: “discrimination” lawsuits.
(which imo, are abused to hell)
I declined to offer any help other than to “seek council” as I am big on constitutional right to privacy. -even when said privacy is an “illusion”
-s
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Ridiculous. I used to date a girl who was outright nuts, obsessive/compulsive, bipolar. Her mood swings were amazing to watch.
You would never know from her facebook page, she looks happy and normal!
I’ve read several news articles and researched for additional details before coming to a conclusion.
I’m sorry to say this, but it sounds like to me that this woman is just lazy. Anyone who really had a depression [or other mental] problem would NOT be posting photos on facebook, much less continuing to post photos on facebook. This whole “I have a depression problem” is just one that ANYONE can fake.
Now as for the argument of how facebook profiles should have been locked and private… there is NO such thing as keeping things “safe” and locked on the net. ANYTHING that gets posted or sent [yes that includes EMAIL] through the net STAYS on the net. I’ve known this simple FACT for years.
As for the insurance company being “in the wrong” to snoop and discontinue her benefits… I’m sorry, but they have every right to know if someone is handing them a line a sh!t just to get free money out of the deal. There ARE people out there who REALLY do need and deserve to have health insurance, but don’t get it because of individuals like this woman who make it bad for everyone else. I commend the insurance company for buckling down and I wish that other leeching individuals would get caught and cut off too.
Bottom line: it doesn’t pay to be a thief, liar, lazy, money moocher. Let this be a lesson for anyone who thinks it’s ok to suck on the system while others pay their hard earned money for it. IBM would be wise to not allow the woman to come back to the job. Instead, they should tell her to take a hike, as this story I’m sure will have some sort of bad reflection on the corporation. If this woman is capable of going to a beach weekly and capable of going to night clubs to see male dancers, then she’s most certainly capable of working a normal job like a normal human being.
Don’t feel sorry for con artists. They’re good at sucking people dry of their money.
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