Does Advance Medical Directive impact insurance?

Advance Medical Directive: Insurance not affected

THE Advance Medical Directive (AMD) is a legal document that one signs in advance to inform the doctor treating him, in the event the patient becomes terminally ill and unconscious, that he does not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to be used to prolong his life ("Does Advance Medical Directive impact insurance?" by Mr Loon Chee How; last Saturday).

Making an AMD is a voluntary decision.

The AMD Act states that the making of an AMD shall not affect the sale, procurement or issuance of an insurance policy. More details are available at the MOH website.

In addition, the AMD Act does not authorise any act that causes or accelerates death from the natural course.

Lim Bee Khim (Ms)
Director
Corporate Communications
Ministry of Health
ST Forum, 19 Feb 2015

Does Advance Medical Directive impact insurance?

BEFORE making an Advance Medical Directive (AMD), I wanted to find out if it would affect my life insurance policies.

But I just could not find the answers. The insurance companies did not seem to have knowledge of the AMD Act.

The only response I received from one of them was the standard one: That the company would assess every insurance claim on its merit and on reports from the doctors. This is a very generalised and evasive reply.

Does the Act make it mandatory for all insurance companies to regard all life insurance claims as a result of an AMD death as valid?

In other words, will the insurance companies accept that an AMD death is not "unnatural" or "premature"?

What insurance policies are not affected by the AMD?

In the event that insurers do not honour life policies under an AMD death, what recourse does one have?

Loon Chee How
ST Forum, 14 Feb 2015

Best to check insurance policy terms

WE THANK Mr Loon Chee How for his query ("Does Advance Medical Directive impact insurance?"; Feb 14).

Further to the response provided by the Ministry of Health ("Advance Medical Directive: Insurance not affected"; Feb 19), generally, insurers will honour claims for deaths resulting from acting on an Advance Medical Directive (AMD).

This is so unless:

- the individual's medical condition falls within an exclusion clause stated in the policy contract; or

- the AMD was obtained under circumstances listed in the Act that include deception or fraud, or the forging of an AMD; or

- any person withholds personal knowledge of a revocation of an AMD.

The AMD is a legal document that one signs in advance to inform the doctor treating him, in the event he becomes terminally ill and unconscious, that he does not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to be used to prolong his life.

We recommend that individuals speak with their financial advisers to have a clear understanding of the terms of their life policies to ensure that they are appropriately and adequately protected.

Pauline Lim (Ms)
Executive Director
Life Insurance Association Singapore
ST Forum, 5 Mar 2015