Are you happy with your insurance ?

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The impunity with which insurance company deprives people of their claims is very saddening and even alarming. I wonder why we need insurance when they never actually come to our aid when the time for them to do so arises nor do they deliver on their promises. I was a victim of what I can only call "the insurance fraud”. I have had my insurance for more than 2 years and never thought to use for once. For some reason, I felt they were unreliable. The way my school and other schools made it compulsory - not just in China but in most other countries - and the role they keep claiming those insurance companies play, I thought I should give it a shot. All these years, whenever I fell sick, I would go to the hospital and after treatment, I would cover whatever medical expenses there was without asking anyone, even though I had the insurance card. My Chinese friends kept telling me it was a waste, that I should make good use of it. I decided to give it a shot.

I woke up one morning and had a crazy pain in my chest. I couldn’t really explain it as I could feel it at my back and on my chest. I have had this pain before and I had gone to my school's clinic a couple of times. On all occasions, I was given some medicine I couldn’t even tell what they were for, for both the report and medicines are all in Chinese (blame it on my poor reading skills). It didn’t work but I was too shy to go back most times as I couldn’t really speak enough Chinese to explain myself and the doctor’s English wasn't good enough to understand me either. The doctor always told me it was nothing serious, that I just needed to take the medicine given to me and get enough rest, plus of course, drink plenty of water. I did all I was told to do but it actually didn’t help. So, I endured the pain for the longest time possible until I forgot it was there. Maybe the medicine worked after all or I learned to endure it very well. Whatever the case, after a while, the pain was gone. 

But on this fateful morning, the pain was back again. It was so bad that when I walk, I could hear my back making strange sounds. Again, I tried to endure it for a while but I couldn’t and after about 3 days, I  went again to the school clinic. I did about three types of tests, including the EGC test, but everything came out fine; as the doctor told me. The doctor said I was fine. I managed it for another two days and then decided to go to a proper hospital. I call the number on my insurance card and told them I felt sick and would go to the hospital but I wanted to know how the insurance worked. They asked what was wrong and I explained to them and they suggested I visit any hospital close to where I was but that it has to be a public hospital and I must take normal treatment and not VIP treatment. They also said I had to make the initial payment and then, they would reimburse me later. 

I went to a public hospital, queue up like every other person got the card and after a long wait, I finally saw a doctor. After meeting a couple of doctors, I finally meant one who understood the pain I was going through. The doctor told me to go for an MRI scan (which would cost about 700+). He gave me a slip and recorded the information in my hospital card. I went to pay for the scan and bought some of the medicines he recommended to ease the pain. After payment, I got a date for the MRI and went back to school. On the day of the scan, I went back to the hospital and after the scan, I was told to return the next day for the result.   After I got the result, I had to book another appointment to see a doctor who would interpret the test result. When I finally saw the doctor;  a really nice doctor I must say, he took his time to explain the result to me and told me I had a growth but it was not malignant. He wrote some medicine for bones and joints treatment (I could tell because there was a picture of joints on the pack of the medicine) and told me to go for a check-up every 3 months just to be sure. He recorded all the information in my hospital card as was the practice of the hospital and only wrote his observation and name (I guess for it was written in Chinese) on my hospital booklet.

I waited a few days to feel better and then called the insurance company to know what was the next step. They sent me details of what to do and forms to fill with my school's stamp. I attached all the invoices both from my school clinic and the hospital as well as photocopies of all the medical records in the hospital booklets (all that I had). My school stamped it and I mailed it to them using SF express as they requested. It actually cost 23 yuan or so to mail the document to their office in Beijing. Days later I called them only to find out that the document was returned, not to me,  to my school and they used one of the cheapest and slowest couriers to mail back the documents. It goes without saying that the reason they requested I used SF express wasn't to protect the documents as they claimed but to make me waste my money or perhaps discourage me, if not, why didn’t they use the same courier? I got the document finally from my school and they attached a sticker requesting for details about the accident. It was funny because it shows they didn’t even go through the documents. Pure negligence! I called them and the nice lady that answered the phone told me Ms. Emily was in charge of my case and she requested I sent a report about the accident. I explained to her that I was never involved in an accident (and pray to never be in an accident) and never filled for any such claim. She apologized for the mixup and told me to resent the documents, first through email so she could verify if I had all the documents before mailing it to Beijing again.

I finally decided to fill only the invoices and the reports they accepted in the emails. The total was 2000+ but after the back and forth, I could only send the MRI invoice which was about 750 and the invoice for the second set of medicine (or was it the first? ). The totally was now about 900 yuan. I sent it again with SF express with a note asking them to use the same courier if they need to return the document for whatever reason as it is only fair that we all spend the same amount of money.

In the end, I got 57 yuan as reimbursement. I thought this was a weird joke and emailed them to confirm if they were just testing my account or if that was the actual payment. Mr. Jason; a somewhat nice fellow, called me and explained to me that that was the whole payment I was getting. I was super piss! After spending more than that mount on shipping alone…I promised to sue the company and I will keep that promise but I want the world to understand the helplessness international students face in the hands of the so-called insurance companies. I trust the Chinese government will look into this as China is one place where corruption, in whatever form,  has no place to hide.

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