Based on your medical history, individual health insurers may deny you coverage - or put you in such a high-risk category that it makes health coverage too expensive. What is more the factors that go into making you an ‘insurance untouchable’ may not be as obvious as you think and can come from a variety of sources, for example visiting a counsellor or therapist, a prescription for something like hayfever or a short spell on antidepressants.

Of course there are things you cannot help and then there are things you can do something about. Lying has always been an insurance no-no but even that does not stop some people. For example, Whirlpool Corp. suspended 39 employees for lying about tobacco use. The employees had signed paperwork indicating that they did not use tobacco, but they were seen smoking or chewing tobacco on company property.

Even counselling for grief or a sleeping or eating disorder could possibly make someone ineligible, the reasoning all being centered on future risk. Insurers make money by avoiding the risk of paying high claims and so insurers will look at your past medical history, ongoing, any pre-existing medical conditions, all to determine a sense of what that consumer's future risk might be.

This of course is a problem, the stigma of having been on medication for mental health disorders like impulse-control disorders or anxiety disorders, has a tendency to label you in the eyes of insurers, and even if you come off medication insurers are not always willing to lower your premiums as a result.

This has often led to those looking for individual insurance to lie in order to protect their privacy. For example, a survey on medical privacy by the California Healthcare Foundation, found that 13% of American adults say they have done something "to protect the privacy" of their medical history. Younger respondents, those under 45, were more likely to have engaged in privacy-protective behaviours taking action such as not seeking care, such as diagnostic tests, to avoid disclosure and asking their doctor not to write down a health problem or to record a less-serious condition.