The country’s life insurance industry is taking a step toward improving mental health support, with the launch of an action plan to ensure long-term affordability and industry sustainability.
Over the next 12 months, CALI will lead the development of an assessment framework for mental health claims that’s designed in collaboration with medical experts, workplace specialists, and insurers.
CALI CEO Christine Cupitt said life insurers have a responsibility to act on Australia’s growing mental health crisis to deliver greater consistency for consumers across the industry.
Our goal is to ensure an experience that is fair, transparent, and consistent…
“We have listened to feedback from customers and consumer advocates who feel the claims process can be more transparent and easier to understand,” she said.
“Our goal is to ensure an experience that is fair, transparent, and consistent for every Australian, no matter which insurer a customer turns to.”
She said insurers will always help Australians with severe conditions that prevent them from working, “…but like the NDIS or workers’ compensation schemes, we can’t be the answer for every case”.
CALI will establish an expert panel to:
- Provide technical advice on the framework
- Draw on medical practitioners and legal specialists
- Rehabilitation and return-to-work experts, life insurance practitioners, and people with lived experience
A three-month targeted consultation will be held in early 2026, engaging consumer representatives, mental health advocates, superannuation trustees, financial advisers, and medical professionals.
The new framework will be informed by the outcomes of the Life Code review, which is examining how the code supports customers with mental health conditions.
CALI states its industry action plan will:
- Provide clarity and transparency to customers by creating a framework that will establish minimum standards for consistent, evidence-based thresholds to better assess mental health claims against
- Align where possible, industry guidance and approaches on disability insurance to other income support systems in Australia
- Clarify the purpose of disability insurance and better reflect contemporary medical evidence and return-to-work outcomes
- Set industry principles on disability insurance that can help achieve genuine indemnification for financial loss of customers
- Maintain stakeholder support by acting fairly and transparently
