Ruling Favors Cancer Victim

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Ruling Favors Cancer Victim


A recent court battle is expected to bring sweeping changes to Korea's life insurance industry.

Under the precedent-setting ruling, insurance companies must pay the survivors of policyholders who die of cancer even if the policies were canceled because the clients did not declare pre-existing conditions, as long as those conditions were unrelated to the cancer.

In the court case, the Financial Dispute Settlement Committee, an organ of the Financial Supervisory Service, ordered an insurance provider, identified only as "T Life Insurance," to award an insurance holder's wife 35 million won ($27,580). The company must also change terms that stipulate that the survivors of a client who died of cancer and whose policy has been canceled are eligible only for benefits if the policyholder died within 180 days of the cancellation.

The case began in 1998 when the insurance agency terminated the contract of a "Mr. M" after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The agency held that Mr. M failed to disclose, before making the contract that he had been treated for a fatty liver.
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