Home My Blog Show All Blog Year 2007 - Year of Pre-existing Conditions Year 2007 - Year of Pre-existing Conditions Written by Wilfred Ling    Monday, 31 December 2007 Here are some real life cases in Year 2007 of my clients who wished to get insured but have pre-existing conditions:   A 20-something-year-old male who has high cholesterol, suspected IgA nephropathy and high PSA level. Declined by AXA and Aviva. TM Asia Life asked overwhelming too many questions. Heavily loaded by NTUC Income but declined for all critical illness coverage. Thank goodness that his parents in the past had bought some basic cover in critical illness although the amount is too little due to the effects of inflation. Lesson: Parents should pro-actively plan for their child just like this case. [Side note: I worked on this case for more then 8 months!] Parent bought Aviva Myshield Plan 2 (coverage for Government/Restructured hospitalization) for baby because it is free. However due to one incident of bronchitis which resulted in hospitalization in a private hospital, parent realizes the plan bought was not appropriate. Parent sought my help to upgrade to Plan 1. However, exclusion on bronchitis was imposed. Lesson: Don’t take free lunch. Client found that both parents have no medical coverage. One parent had Stage 0 cancer before and the other high blood pressure. I have not try to apply medical insurance for both of them yet however I had warned the client that an exclusion is likely to be apply. If this is the case, the client will have to pay for all hospital bills for his parent if admitted to hospital relating to those pre-existing illnesses. Lesson: If parents are not well insured,, their children automatically becomes the insurer by default. Client had childhood asthma. In 2002 he bought a medical insurance (not from me). At that time of purchase, he had no relapse of asthma and hence the coverage was standard coverage. When he saw me, I showed him that the coverage he bought is meant for government/restructured ward. He wanted a better coverage but because he had a relapse of asthma a few months back, he had exclusion on asthma for the new policy. I advised him not to take up the new policy because of this exclusion (there is no exclusion on the older policy). Lesson: Buy when healthy because once a person’s health is not good, it is difficult or not possible to buy a better cover. A 30-something-year-old client developed 50% blockage of the heart artery due to 10 years of untreated high cholesterol. Previously had already have a very good (but expensive) comprehensive medical cover but procrastinated to get higher cover for critical illness. Upon diagnosis of this blockage, he applied to get cheaper comprehensive medical coverage. Was immediately declined. Client was fortunate to have bought a good medical cover and has no choice but to pay hefty premium despite having cheaper alternatives. Lesson: (1) When one becomes unhealthy, there is no more bargaining power and (2) client should not have procrastinated to get a higher cover for critical illness. A 30-something-year-old client had blood in his bowel previously. There is no recurring symptom anymore. The doctor recommended a more thorough investigation but he did not follow-up. He applied for disability income but proposal was postponed until he completes the doctor’s recommendation. Lesson: Not listening to doctor’s advice can adversely affect insurance application. A 40-something-year-old client had some minor pain in his thumb. He was keen to apply for disability income. But as his pain is still on-going and the medical treatment is still on-gong as well, his proposal was postponed. Lesson: Minor aches and pain can also affect insurance application! So who says buying insurance is easy? A 20 year old lady bought a medical insurance upon advice from her brother. However, she has a pre-existing condition of an ovarian problem. The medical cover has this exclusion. 6 months after the policy was incepted, she was admitted to hospital due to this problem. Of course the medical cover will not pay for this condition. Lesson: Insurers are wise to exclude pre-existing conditions because if they don’t, they will incur significant cost which eventually will be passed on to other policyholders. A 20-something-year-old lady applied for a whole life policy. During the insurance routine medical checkup, she was found to have a breast lump. Although biopsy indicates non-issue, she was loaded 50% in premium on the critical illness components. She quickly accepts the much higher premium. Lesson: You never know what kind of pre-existing illnesses have developed.     < Prev   Next >