An Australian doctor who was one of the heroes in the aftermath of the Bali bombings has struggled to get life insurance and has been refused income protection because of the post traumatic stress (PTSD) he experienced after the attack.
Dr Bill McNeil was on a surfing holiday in Bali in 2002 and was one of the first medical staff on the scene after the Sari Club exploded.
“I was actually running late to meet some of my friends at the club when the bomb went off,” Dr McNeil told the ABC’s 7.30 program.
His training kicked in and he went straight into the blast zone to see if he could help.
“It was terrible,” he said.
“There were hundreds, if not thousands of people streaming past, covered in blood, glass, collapsing buildings, flames.”
Dr McNeil worked all night at the hospital, saving those he could.
“We were able to get IV fluids and morphine into people,” he said.
“We are able to get a system going where we could keep people resuscitated — basically holding the fort until people came.”
It was on his return to Australia that Dr McNeil’s mental problems began.
“I had a lot of images going through my mind constantly, what they call flashbacks, and I was very disturbed,” he said.
“A young German girl disembowelled in my arms and having to tell her that she was going to die and that she needed to be prepared to die.
“She was 24 and she was alone, she didn’t know anyone there.
“Just a young fellow that all these blokes ran into the flames to rescue and I thought they would die — pulled him out, he had no head.
“So many things, so many people burnt, so much suffering.”
Road to recovery
After six months Dr McNeil quit his job and sought professional help.
With treatment, his condition began to improve.
“This was the wonder, that you can recover from this sort of thing,” he said.
Slowly, the young doctor rebuilt his life.
He married his wife Jada and they had three young kids.
Now he has a regular job at the local medical centre in Forster, on the New South Wales mid-north coast.
“I’ve got three beautiful children and a lovely wife and I have a career that is starting to take off,” he said.
With hope for the future and with something he thought worth protecting, Dr McNeil decided to take out life and income protection insurance.
“They just said, ‘no. No way’,” he said.
“‘We are not going to ensure you with PTSD’. It was just miserable.
“I never expected anything for what I did, and I would gladly walk away, but for the sake of my children … I’ve got no words.”
Insurance obtained with conditions attached
Eventually Dr McNeil obtained life insurance, but there were conditions attached.
“I had to wait two years without a change in my health conditions. So, not see the psychiatrist, not change medication, not do anything, just be completely stable for two years,” he said.
“Which was fine, but heaven forbid that I needed a bit of a tune-up, you know.”
Even after this, his Bali experience was to cost him, with the insurance company charging three times the standard premium.
“‘300 per cent loading’ they called it,” he said.
And he was refused income protection insurance.
“I would love to have income protection with a mental illness exclusion,” Dr McNeil said.
“That would be fine — I don’t have any concerns about my mental health at all.
“With everything that I’ve been through I think my mental health is better than 99 per cent of the population.”
Doctor’s treatment ‘outrageous’
Mental Health Australia chief executive officer Frank Quinlan described the doctor’s treatment as “outrageous”.
“People recover from mental illnesses just as they recover from all kinds of other illnesses, so I think to be making life-long exclusions is really insurance companies acting as judge, jury and executioner on almost half of the Australian population,” Mr Quinlan said.
Insurance Brokers Association chief executive officer Dallas Booth said it was common for insurance companies to exclude mental illness from coverage, unlike physical injuries.
“In mental health it’s much more difficult, the assessment can be quite subjective,” Mr Booth said.
“If it’s difficult to assess the risk, if it’s difficult to price the risk, insurance companies invariably decline to offer cover in that area.”
That is little consolation for Dr McNeil.
He believes that the attitude of the insurance companies is a retrograde step considering the progress that has been made recently in reducing the stigma of mental illness.
“We live in a society where a third of the population can’t have a future or can’t insure their future,” he said.
“If something happens, then you just lose the lot. It’s just not fair.