Woman Loses Health Benefits Over Smiling Facebook Photos
Posted by Tyler Sutherland
A Quebec woman’s health benefits have been suspended after she posted photos of herself smiling on Facebook.
Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave for the last year from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec. She has been receiving monthly sick leave benefits from Manulife due to depression.
Now those payments have come to an end after an agent with Manulife informed Blanchard that she appears to be having fun in several Facebook photos, such as at a local bar, on her birthday and vacationing in a sunny destination. Manulife says the photos are evidence that she is no longer depressed.
According to CBC News, Blanchard has hired a lawyer to try and get her benefits reinstated.
Manulife says a client’s policy would not be terminated solely based on photos found on a website, but for now, they are suspended indefinitely.
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November 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 am
[...] health benefits cancelled because of facebook photos.. Saw this on the news this morning…LOL Link [...]
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:27 pm
So after a year and a half you are still too depressed to work but NOT too depressed to go to a strip bar, frolic on a beach down south and party party party.
p.s. I too had clinical depression and was off work for several months. However, with the proper meds and a real effort, I was able to go back to work and in fact working and my associates at work helped get my mind off the depression.
So, suck it up princess, you are not going to get paid for partying for the rest of your life.
November 26th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
There are too many people out for various reasons, but there has to be a doctor involved in this, I would think. Here in the US we have FMLA for this sort of issue, but smiling is no sin, hope she does what was suggested to set her picture and profile only for those she gives permission to.