Posted on October 7, 2009 - by Adrian Khiat

Pre-existing Illnesses – Shield Plans(1)

Photo by Jule_Berlin

Someone emailed me recently to seek my opinion about Pre-exising Illnesses for her Shield Plan. She was advised to switch out from Aviva Myshield to GE SupremeHealth. The adviser claims that she was in a vulnerable position due to Aviva’s definition about “Pre-existing Illnesses”.

I replied to her that she should look into other benefits in the long term other than this “Pre-existing clause. It is a bit too extreme to say that she is in a vulnerable position just because of the “Pre-existing Illnesses” definition.

a) Her policy was already been inforce for several years. It is very difficult for the insurer to prove that a Pre-existing condition exist prior commencement of the policy. If the insurer is to refuse the claim, they have to prove this point.

b) It is not the responsibility of the insurer to refuse a claim when it happens. The pre-existing condition clause was present to largely protect the pool of policyholders against anti-selections. Every claims should be viewed objectively with this in mind.

c) Aviva have around 100k+ policyholders for their Myshield Plan and is known to make around 5,000 claims per year. It is not heard of many cases whereby Aviva rejected claims purely based on Pre-existing illnesses. Read more…

Related posts:

1. Pre-existing Illnesses – Shield Plans(2)
2. Pre-existing Conditions for Medical Insurance
3. Existing Medical Insurance Cover and She Didn’t Know