Visitors Insurance

I took a Bajaj Allianz Travel Insurance Policy, paying a hefty sum as premium to ensure that i am covered well while i was traveling in the US & Canada.

Unfortunately i took ill and suffered a
mild heart attack and was admitted to an American Hospital. All the while i was admitted, i was assured that the company would do their best to settle my bills as soon as it was sent out to them.

I am a sugar patient, and my doctor clearly told me that my heart condition wasnt because of my pre existing condition. When i presented my papers to the Insurance provider (the venerable Bajaj Allianz), to my utmost horror, the company rejected my claim on the basis that ANY heart conditions had been ruled out (whether with or without sugar induced) when the policy was issued, since i was a sugar patient. They went on to rattle off statistics to ensure that we were suitably impressed, and of course we were not!!!!

The agency claims, that they like transparency and put everything in black and white! But if that was the case, why werent the conditions listed out in bullet form, rather than in convoluted english, separated by multiple punctuation marks, semi colons, commas et al.

Bottom line: the minute they saw they had to pay a whopping bill of 40000 US dollars, which translates to roughly 16 lakhs of rupees, they decided to comb through the policy to find loopholes which could be manipulated.

And if you come to think of it, they didnt even conduct any medical exams when they granted the policy, so if i had conveniently forgotten to mention that I had Diabetes, may be they would have paid after all. Such is the price of Honesty!!

I was told, albeit very rudely that i can approach the legal forum, for justice.

To add salt to the wounds, the agency boldly challenged me saying that if you want to fight me, on the point that this wasnt caused by diabetes, I (that is the agency) will prove to you that this was caused by diabetes and then you will end up with nothing! So much for their consideration when they were seeking business.

I think I will, considering that the company is only trying to maintain its rejection rate and taking undue advantage of simple people, by using convoluted english, which leads people to interpret the policy clauses in more than one way.

To prove my point, i have shown the clause to family, friends, even people not known to me, and a couple of lawyers. without being biased, they state that the clause means what it states, and not what the insurance company is trying to read it out to be.

I am disgusted and appalled at their service levels, their lack of responsibility and their immediate shift from all pleasing, (when they wanted your business) to even threatening, albeit accusing me of changing my mind, since I was now forced to pay the entire money.

Will i give them a satisfaction rating, yes but mine will be - 24 %, not because they have only tried to hoodwink me, of my life’s savings, because i am retired now, but also becuase they have treated me with disrespect and tried to shoo me away / get rid of me like i was an annoying fly in the milk.