My father was diagnosed with vocal cord paralysis in reason unknown. There was oedema of the the vocal cord and hence the left vocal cord was known to have a palsy. He was adviced surgery, we avoided it. Till we were unable to understand the reason for the same and neither was any doctor able to give the an answer. Medical field gives the reason as stress. He managed to survive the aggrevated breathlessness by taking asthalin pump and neurobion. At one point he could not survive the winter, was taken as emergency to the hospital and tracheostomy was performed. The oedema had never reduced. Suspicion made one of the ENT doctors perform a biopsy on the left vocal cord and the result proved a very hidden T3 cancer. CT and MRI scans were performed in all surrounding areas of the neck, all was clear. The doctors suggested that it might have occured just a few months ago as it does not seem to have spread anywhere else. He was treated with chemo and radiation during the months of mar till may. All test done post RT&CT proved the cancer was clear. For the next 3 months he was perfect only with the tracheostomy and the vocal cord oedema. In sept he started developing boils on his neck. These were hard nodules. Dermatologist suggested a few medicines to help the soft skin around the tracheostomy after RT/CT to take the pressure of the tubes and everyday cleaning. The nocules continue to aggrevate and the patient felt sharp pricks all over the neck. An FNAC was performed suggesting a metastatic cancer. Reason for re-laspse is unknown.
He is an occasional smoker and alcoholic and he stopped it after a few years of diagnosis of vocal cord palsy.
Since the tracheostomy, the patient was covered under another insurance as my father was employed. During the cancer re-lapse, my father had just quit his job. We applied for Medi-assist (New India Assurance). They declined insurance on the exclusion clause that any disease that occurs out of use of alcohol and drugs or tobacco that may result in cancer, such insurance gets void. I submitted a letter from doctors and a case history that the reason for this particular cancer is unknown.
We have to make do with talking to call centre employees when trying to contact the medical office who assesed the insurance claim. How can a normal employee understand words like carcinoma. When i used words like carcinoma and palsy, the call centre employee was stunned and has no answer, probably never heard such a word in his life. Request to talk to the doctor was denied. The call centre employee said he wants an explaination from the doctor, which we got as well and he said, history of smoking. Even though we had mentioned that he quit smoking and drinking much before the disease was diagnosed.
At one point they told me that we can submit for a claim after paying the bills. Doesn't, make sense that once declined might get approved later.
The new india assurance has a policy clause that does not cover anyone with a history of smoking or drinking, this is a corporate group policy that must cover pre-existing diseases no matter how and when it has occured. This particular case, the patient was covered in the past. That way, you can say that stomach cancer will not be covered if the person has a history of smoking. This is a ridiculus inapproriate unexplained clause. This is an unfair clause with no explaination.
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