Mr Tan Kin Lian was spot on about insurance companies and claims (Unfair to reject claims due to past medical conditions; Oct 10).

I wholeheartedly agree with what was stated, as I too had my medical claim rejected by an insurance company several years ago.

I had upgraded my integrated plan to cover private hospitalisation and my then agent told me to fill up a form. However, I was not told by the agent that I had to fill in the portion of declaring medical conditions, as it was merely an upgrade and I had been holding the existing plan for many years.

But several months later, when I tried to make a claim after a day surgery at Raffles Hospital, my claim was rejected.

The insurance company said I had not declared that I had been referred by the polyclinic to Singapore General Hospital (SGH) for other medical appointments.

My argument to them was that I was given several referral appointments to SGH, but was not officially diagnosed with anything, so how can that be declared as a medical condition?

I informed them that I was unaware I had to declare my referrals, since it was an upgrade and not a new policy application, and it wasn't made known to me by the agent who was with me when I filled the form.

I followed up by filing a complaint against the agent, but my claim was still rejected.

I ended up paying cash for the medical treatment at Raffles Hospital.

There are many agents, full time or part time, selling insurance. You can't be assured that they will always give the right information, but the customer should not be penalised for it.

Shelby Doshi (Ms)