Insurance and the IT Girl

Stace and her wife live in The Netherlands.

They want a new kitchen and, like many of us in the States and elsewhere, they need to refinance the house to get a better rate and to get the funds to build the new kitchen.

Such is life for most of us, but it seems that a small life insurance is necessary when applying for a mortgage in the Netherlands (I have not known that to be the case in the US).

Stace is young, has a good job and is the picture of health.  No problem, right?

Per Stace:

When the insurance company took too long to get back in touch (considering they knew that my mortgage company was pushing for the insurance green light!) I called them back.  'You have all of the information?' 'Yes.' 'Great, so you can get the OK for the insurance out today so I can get it to my mortgage company?' 'Oh! No, we won't be insuring you'.

WTF!

Well, Stace is a pre-op transsexual.  That means medications, therapy, and an eventual operation.  Seems that this raises red flags with life insurance companies.

Did Stace and Mrs. Stace finally get the insurance?  Did they get the mortgage?  Is the kitchen done?

Read more of the Musings of an I.T. Girl in her post, The hard side of insurance.

Is this issue unique to The Netherlands or is it common?  This is the first I have heard of such a problem.  I'm sure that some have, sadly, died on the operating table in the process of vaginoplasty, or various cosmetic surgery procedures, but surely this is very, very rare.

[Thanks to Coline for suggesting we feature Stace's post]