ABC PRESENTER: Ella Ingram had a big win today.
As a result, things look set to change for insurers around the country, as well as for
the rest of us who take out their policies.
ABC JOURNALIST VOICEOVER: Ella is finally going to get the $4000 payout she’s entitled
to, plus $15,000 in compensation for hurt and humiliation.
ABC’s LEIGH SALES: Nearly half of all Australians will experience a mental illness in their
lifetime, from mild anxiety to sever psychosis.
MADELEINE MORRIS: QBE declined to comment to 7.30 but also attempted to delay this story
by seeking a legal injunction, which was refused.
QBE wouldn’t be interviewed today,
but released a statement.
ELLA INGRAM: My name’s Ella Ingram. I took on QBE and I won.
FEMALE JOURNALIST VOICEOVER: The trip was due to leave in April, but deep down Ella
knew she wasn’t well enough to go.
When her psychiatrist also recommended she cancel, with a heavy heart, she followed his
advice.
ELLA INGRAM: So when I was 17, I was in Year 12 and I was going to go on a school trip.
I’d saved up for about, maybe a year-year and a half, and I worked at a bakery.
I was so excited.
That was all we could talk about at school was the trip to New York, the trip to New
York, but unfortunately I got diagnosed for the first time with depression.
I was really, really upset about it, but I knew that I just couldn’t go.
I had travel insurance with QBE.
I went through with a claim for about $4200.
It got denied straight away because unbeknownst to me, they had a blanket mental health exclusion
in their policy.
I was shocked and I was angry, and it was the first time that I felt stigmatised for
having depression.
I then started an appeal process that took months and then took even years, and it wasn’t
until three years later that we finally got to court.
To finally get QBE into court was such a good feeling.
It was also very terrifying at the same time going up against a multi-billion-dollar company.
I was really anxious but then my anxiety sort of subsided because I realised that when they
had to prove that what they were doing legal, well it just didn’t add up, the numbers
didn’t add up.
I felt confident we would succeed and that, yeah, we would get a win.
I felt like I was doing it all for the right reasons and that’s why I continued for such
a long time is that I knew that there must be people out there that were going through
the exact same thing that I had and I knew that people hadn’t gotten as far as I had
because they’re vulnerable because big insurance companies are taking advantage of these vulnerabilities.
I was in such a good position to continue with this because I had such great support
from friends and family.
You know, why not?
Why not continue with this?
Why not fight it and start something, and send a message to these insurance companies
that discrimination is not ok and mental illness shouldn’t be stigmatised.
CAPTION WITHIN INSTAGRAM, ON SCREEN: Following widespread media coverage of Ella’s victory,
she was inundated on social media by messages from well-wishers and people who had also experienced discrimination.
ELLA INGRAM: That was so, I guess, empowering
and it just backed up all the reasons of why I wanted to go through with this in the first place
I would like insurance companies to know that people with mental illness aren’t weak.
They’re people like myself that are going to fight them in court and not let them get
away with what they’ve been getting away with for so long, and I would like them to
stop discriminating against people with mental illnesses because it’s no different from
people with a physical illness.
I would hope that, um, anyone who’s been in a similar situation to me would go onto
beyondblue’s website and share their story, and help end discrimination.