GEORGE TOWN, April 25 ― A widow is suing an insurance firm here for RM2 million after it declined to pay out on her husband’s policy against cancer when he was diagnosed with the disease six months after he purchased the plan.

According to Ooi Cheng Cheng, her husband Wilson Tan Teck Hooi randomly bought a Cancer Plus insurance policy Axa Affin General Insurance Bhd.

“My husband had bought the policy on a whim because a tele-marketer had called him and was very insistent so he bought it on November 1, 2012,” Ooi said.

But when he was diagnosed with cancer almost six months later on April 22, 2013, the company refused to pay out.

Tan died two months after the diagnosis without getting the RM150,000 in medical benefits from Axa Affin General Insurance.

She said that when they submitted their claims to Axa Affin, they were told that coverage only took effect after a 90-day waiting period from the purchase date of November 11, 2012.

Ooi said the firm refused to pay out the medical benefits, citing a clause that Tan had been seeking medical treatment for his cancer during the waiting period.

“My husband was not diagnosed until five months after the waiting period and previously he was only seeking other medical treatments,” she said.

“My husband had continued working when he was diagnosed so initially, his company footed the medical bills but then they fired him so we had to pay for medical fees after that,” she added in between tears.

Ooi said they had to fork out their own savings to pay for her husband's medical care at that time.

The couple has two children and Tan was the main breadwinner so when he lost his job, Ooi had to support the family and also pay for her husband's medical fees.

Despite several attempts to get the pay out even after her husband died, she claimed the insurance company told her that her husband's claim has been rejected and that she can proceed with legal action if she wanted to.

Ooi, through her counsels Jason Ong, Lynnette Quah and Tan Guat Cheng, is now seeking RM2 million from Axa Affin General Insurance Bhd for damages in addition to the RM150,000 medical benefits from Tan’s policy.

The defendant will have two weeks, after the writ of summons is served upon them, to file their statement of defence.