A Melbourne man has slammed his insurer after he was forced to cough up $30,000 of his own money for life-saving surgery following a heart attack while in Thailand.
Steven Stenton was about to have a second emergency operation when he was told he couldn’t have the surgery until he paid almost $30,000 for the previous procedure.
The staff brought a credit card machine with them into the ICU to show they meant business.
‘He was on his phone moving $30,000 off our mortgage … in the few minutes before his second procedure,’ his wife Katie Bennett-Stenton told The Age.
‘I was already so worried about him and whether he was going to live.’
She said her husband, whose trip was a Father’s Day gift from his wife and children, had no previous ill health and paid about $200 for the travel insurance from 1Cover.
He had previously used a different travel insurance provider, but switched to 1Cover because it sponsors St Kilda, the AFL team he supports.
Ms Bennett-Stenton flew to Bangkok last Monday when she found out her husband had a heart attack and already had one life-saving operation.
Steven Stenton (pictured) was about to have a second emergency operation when he was told he couldn’t have the surgery until he paid almost $30,000 for the previous procedure
She said the insurer knew about the heart attack since her husband was admitted to hospital last Sunday and should have covered his medical expenses.
‘We paid for comprehensive medical insurance, which they describe on their website to be unlimited overseas medical assistance with 24/7 emergency medical assistance to assist you in stressful circumstances,’ Ms Bennett-Stenton said.
She thought the insurer would tell her to focus on her IT professional husband, and that they would sort out the financial side of things, but that was not the case.
On the day of the second surgery, Ms Bennett-Stenton said 1Cover agreed to pay, but insisted she sign ‘a disclaimer to say that they would cover the costs for the moment, but if it turned out to be a pre-existing condition, that we would repay it’.
But even though she signed the waiver before the second procedure, the family still had to pay $30,000 to the Thai hospital for the first surgery.
The second operation then turned out to lot more complex than the surgeons initially thought it would be, which led to the hospital ‘badgering’ the couple for another $50,000.
Though 1Cover did finally pay the $50,000, the family was told they would need to get the $30,000 back from the hospital, which could take more than a month.
Ms Bennett-Stenton said the insurance difficulties were ‘a nightmare on top of the nightmare of my husband having a heart attack in a foreign country’.
Steven Stenton (left) and Katie Bennett-Stenton (second right) are pictured with their children in Byron Bay in northern NSW
She said she was ‘livid that we’ve been put through all this undue extra stress’ and that the pressure was ‘unconscionable’.
Though they were able to move $30,000 from their mortgage to cover the cost, Ms Bennett-Stenton said: ‘That’s a hell of a lot of money, and so many people wouldn’t have access to that, and what would have happened then?’
She wrote on Instagram that she was unhappy with the insurer’s service, but when a friend replied in support, they got a message from 1Cover’s account saying: ‘It would be appreciated if you would kindly refrain from commenting on situations you have very little insights on’.
Her friend replied back, saying ‘Wow that’s rude. You might need to get a new social media manager.
‘I just got back from an overseas trip and glad I didn’t use your services. I’ll be reporting this message.’
The same 1Cover Instagram account later sent a message saying it was sorry.
‘I sincerely apologise for the first message. That wasn’t supposed to have sent, I am not part of the social media team and inadvertently sent that.’
She wrote on Instagram that she was unhappy with the insurer’s service, but when a friend replied in support, they got a message from 1Cover’s account (pictured)
The friend replied to 1Cover that they thought their response was ‘rude’
1Cover then replied to say that the previous message had been sent ‘inadvertently’
Mr Stenton is now out of the Thai hospital and he and his wife hope to get home to Port Melbourne in about a week.
Despite the order, Ms Bennett-Stenton told The Age that her husband’s ‘treatment has been so great’.
‘But you know, Aussie families trust when they do the right thing and buy comprehensive insurance that they’ll be looked after.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted 1Cover for comment.
