Health Insurance Prejudice - Happy Ending
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"Your’re amazing … We want you to stay that way"
Christine Burns ponders BUPA’s corporate slogan and wonders just what went on behind closed doors for six very silent weeks.
June 28th, 1997
The original letter which began this brief saga arrived on Saturday May 17th and was polite but crushing …
…after careful consideration of the medical details supplied on the application form, I feel unable to accept your application to join BUPA.
In order to be fair to all our members, we exclude cover for preexisting conditions which pose a higher than average risk to our funds. As the exclusions imposed would be very extensive, we feel that it would not be fair to offer membership as we would not be able to offer clear and comprehensive terms of cover….
Six weeks later, to the day, a cover registration certificate arrived bearing the words "No special conditions apply". A happy ending, yes, but it leaves many questions unanswered, as I wrote in amazement to my colleagues …
Saturday 28th June, 1997 08:30 am
The company’s slogan on the standard letter feels rather poignant this morning … and I’m glad I’m sitting down because all of a sudden my legs feel a little bit shaky.
There was no letter of apology for what had gone before … no clue as to what had gone on behind the closed doors over the last few weeks as Britain’s largest Health Care insurer BUPA battened down the hatches and refused to answer anyone’s calls about my case … but this morning’s post brought a fat envelope disgorged by the company’s computer system confirming that, all of a sudden, I’m now a fully paid up member of my employer’s insurance scheme.
No special terms .. no exclusions .. just as it should be in fact. Six weeks to the day after an equally blunt refusal.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be trying to find out just what happened and whether it’s a one-off or something more significant. As late as Friday teatime Jim Sealey, PFC’s independent financial advisor (insurance guru), had been ringing though to express his amazement at the company’s tight-lipped stance, and to tell me that one of their biggest competitors (Norwich Union) was standing in the wings just waiting to sign me up. Overall, therefore, it’s a bit of a mystery.
Being part of an organisation which has a barrister, several lawyers, solicitors, professors of medicine and surgeons on call, and which now has hundreds of friends and supporters in parliament and the media might have a little bit to do with it of course. Having an employer who was more than a little concerned at the mere scent of a sex discrimination case may have had an effect too (though I went out of my way to assure him that I wouldn’t dream of taking him to court).
Maybe it was lots of little things put together.
The result is the important thing though. I have now been treated by the company exactly as I should have been in the first place … without a single live round of legal ammunition having to be fired. The best possible way to resolve a dispute in fact.
So take heart one and all. It CAN be done .. and we are getting better each time at doing it. We are gathering momentum .. winning the war, albeit one ditch at a time.
Now .. about that pension … <grin>
(Feature Copyright © 1997)
