Insurer ‘miserably’ failed family of child with cancer

A family from the west of Ireland were recently given the news of nightmares for every parent. They were told that one of their children had a cancerous tumour that would see him spend a considerable time in hospital undergoing a range of aggressive treatments.

The 16-year-old needed immediate surgery followed by chemotherapy, after which there would be a long course of follow-up chemo and radiotherapy.

“It’s a really tough time for him, us his parents and also his siblings,” his mother – who we will call Jane – writes in an email.

The family have private health insurance with Irish Life Health and the boy’s parents looked at their policy to “see what benefit we could get to make this time a bit easier for him and the family”.

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First they looked at the benefit listed as ‘parent accompanying child in hospital’ in the policy documentation.

They read that this would amount to €40 daily to help with expenses incurred by them – it is not a lot but it might have covered the parking charges and maybe even the odd cup of coffee as they waiting for their son to get better.

It wasn’t to be.

“When we inquired we were told it is only payable for under-14s only,” Jane says.

She stresses that this exclusion was not outlined in the list of benefits. “This was really disappointing considering our son is classed as a minor in the hospital and for safeguarding must have a parent nearby at all times. We had to pay a lot more than €40 to be by his side for the weeks he was in hospital but it would have been good to have some contribution from our health insurer,” she adds, reasonably.

Jane’s son had the surgery and the chemo but is still on the road to recovery so we will fast forward to recent days when Jane contacted Irish Life again to inquire about the cancer support benefit outlined in the plan they have.

It applies to people living more than 50km from the hospital where they are being treated.

“Our plan was to rent an apartment in Galway for him and one of us for the upcoming daily radiotherapy treatment and save having to drive back and forth,” she writes.

Her child will simultaneously be receiving chemotherapy “and so will be feeling unwell for those weeks. At least if he could avoid the journey each day it should help. It would also mean less disruption for the siblings at home, one of whom is sitting the Leaving Cert,” she continues.

“Yet again Irish Life have blocked that plan and are refusing to contribute to the cost of the apartment. What is advertised as up to €100 daily contribution towards accommodation expenses will now only apply if the accommodation is in a B&B or a hotel.

“Our plan that his father could base himself in Galway taking care of [our son], cooking meals to boost him during his daily treatments and meanwhile he could rest and, if able, perhaps play his Xbox with his pals remotely. As normal as possible a ‘home from home’ is was what we were aiming for – not a hotel room for the two of them to be cooped up in all day with no facilities for cooking, etc.”

We are not easily shocked but this shocked and upset us. Offering a small financial respite for the family of 14-year-old receiving cancer treatment but not a 16-year-old receiving the very same treatment makes no sense. Being willing to pay €100 towards a B&B or a hotel but not an Airbnb is similarly nonsensical.

She wonders what difference does it make to Irish Life whether it’s an Airbnb or a B&B?

“The policy refers to accommodation only and this is exactly what it is. It’s a contribution towards the cost and not the full amount so why specify this? We are desperately trying to make this time a little easier for [our son] and our family (all of whom are policyholders too). Instead we find our health insurer actively trying to discourage claims. Imagine my frustration when I see the thousands of euros they receive each year for our cover.

“I should add that all hospital bills since his diagnosis have been paid by the Irish taxpayer and not Irish Life thanks to the very good public system we ended up in since February. You would expect at the very least they could contribute something towards his care through these pretty minor benefits. It is so disappointing that when we needed them most our insurer had failed miserably. It’s definitely not a ‘customer first’ policy as far as I can see.”

She says that from her perspective Irish Life “have no interest in looking after this policyholder when they needed help. If there is anything you can do I would really appreciate it. Even to highlight the unfairness of this for future policyholders out there.”

We are not easily shocked but this shocked and upset us. Offering a small financial respite for the family of 14-year-old receiving cancer treatment but not a 16-year-old receiving the very same treatment makes no sense.

Being willing to pay €100 towards a B&B or a hotel but not an Airbnb is similarly nonsensical.

We contacted the company as soon as we received this email.

We are delighted to report that as a result it has significantly overhauled its terms and conditions.

In a statement Irish Life said that it “regularly” reviews its plan terms and conditions “based on customer feedback. We are updating the ‘parent accompanying child’ benefit to extend it to children aged 17 and under. Our ‘cancer support benefit’ will also be updated to include short-term letting providers as an accommodation option. We are making these changes with the intention of better supporting our customers,” the company said.

It added that it had “engaged with a customer directly who was impacted by the current terms and conditions and fast-tracked these changes based upon their immediate needs. We are committed to always supporting our customers and in this instance our terms and conditions did not include that support, but we have sought to rectify it as quickly as possible.”

We can ask no more of them than that.