Mr. Wee (not his real name) is in his late 50s. On advice from his friends, he upgraded his Medishield to a private Shield and paid a higher premium. He thought that this would provide higher coverage for his medical expenses, but it turned out to be a nightmare for him.
A few months later, he had a heart condition that required him to be hospitalized on three occasions. Although his private Shield plan allowed him to use B2 ward, he opted for C class ward. The total bill for the three visits was $14,000, which was initially deducted from his Medisave account.
The insurer refused to pay the claims on account of non-declaration of a cancer treatment that occurred 20 years earlier. As there was no recurrence of this problem, Mr. Wee thought that it was a non-issue. The insurer also found that he did not declare his high blood pressure that was under control.
Mr.Wee had been insured under Medishield since its inception. Instead of paying the claims (which is fully recoverable from Medishield), the insurer wanted to cancel the private Shield insurance from inception, and required Mr. Wee to make a claim directly from Medishield But Medishield told Mr. Wee that he should claim under his private Shield, as Mr. Wee had transferred his policy to private Shield for half a year. It would be quite difficult to transfer the insurance back to Medishield retrospectively.
Mr. Wee had to move from one party to another and after a few months, his claim was still not paid. He advised the public not to upgrade to a private Shield from Medishield and faced this type of stress.
