I need to rant about my medical insurance saga.

Briefly, I had to sign an Offer of Conditional Acceptance (OCA) before my insurance company would accept the ‘endorsement’ or an amendment to an existing insurance contract, which in my case was my decision to increase my Med Saver.

A Med Saver is a deductible. OCA or Conditional Acceptance Letter or CAL was the term used by my agent, and those within the insurance ‘endorsement’ level. Yes, there are levels of insurance walls to scale.

Anyways, no matter OCA or CAL, one point of the rant is the ding-donging and time wasted. The many exchanges I had with my agent. And, his forwarded text messages to me. None of which answered my query or my request to speak to someone, an officer/manager, who could explain and/or justify the OCA.

My agent said that he only managed to speak to the liaison between agents and the insurance company, who apparently mainly deals with marketing matters. The liaison, after consultation with his team, gave my agent a link for me to contact the customer services team, who would then direct me to the appropriate department for a decision. Yes, really.

I wondered. Who was the agent dealing with and forwarding text messages to me all this while? I thought it was with the online customer service of the insurance company that I’m insured with. I thought my agent works for my insurer, the same one, that he has been selling policies for.

I felt fobbed off. But as I was in a ‘needs must’ situation, I tried the link. It read – Contact our Team. It asked – two questions. One, if I was a customer. Two, nature of my enquiry. I had two drop-down choices. One – Interested in life insurance products or riders. Two – Share my feedback. And, a box to write my question or feedback in 500 characters. I wrote and sent my black and white enquiry on 11 August. No response. Today is 25 August.

At my wits end, I actually called the general line of the insurer’s Head Office. There were seven options. I chose number 4 because I thought it might be relevant to me. Spoke to my first faceless real person. I didn’t get anywhere.

I next tried the Contact Centre telephone number. It had the same seven options. This time I chose 5. I made a slight headway. I spoke to a second faceless real person. I asked for an email so I could lodge my enquiry in black and white. Or a telephone number of an officer/manager who can help me. No, to both requests.

So, I had no choice but to repeat my enquiry. He listened, and said he would escalate it to the next level. I was put on hold. After a while, faceless voice number three came on the line. I think, from the endorsement department. Why? She used the acronym CAL like my agent. The second voice didn’t know what I meant by CAL. I had to explain that it was a letter of conditional acceptance.

Same routine. I repeated my questions. She listened. Offered me the same unsatisfactory answers. And, voluntarily escalated it to the next level. This time, I requested a call-back.

I got a call that afternoon. Once again, I repeated my questions. And, went through the OCA with faceless voice number four. Strangely, all four voices did not identify themselves, nor claim to belong to any department. I asked for names for my own record and reference.

Anyways, he explained that the OCA was sent to me because it was an endorsement i.e. a change to my existing policy, and gave the example of the increase in the Med Saver amount.

To which I said, if that’s the case, then my husband’s new endorsed policy also requires an OCA as he too increased his Med Saver. Hmm.

I asked what does the opening sentence of the OCA mean, ‘We are offering you special terms and conditions for acceptance of your application for endorsement as mentioned below and overleaf.’

The answer was the ‘Special Terms’ refer to my arthritis exclusion on Page 2. Really, how does limiting my claim qualify as ‘Special Terms.’ And, serving me with eight Terms and Conditions.  

I told him as a long-standing customer, who has never reneged on premiums, the tone and contents of the OCA was condescending and customer un-friendly. To add insult to injury,  the OCA was conditional upon me signing it in 21 days. He responded by apologising and saying it was not the intention of the company. What was it though? Hmm.

First, the rigmarole with the agent. Then walls by the insurer. I spoke to four people. Did I get any satisfactory answer/s? No.

Lack of care and understanding, convoluted and dynamic policies, and ever-increasing premiums are pushing me to consider self-insurance.