Beware of Liberty Life - especially when youre a black person

Hi there

I have been a client of Liberty since 2015 and have been serviced by Liberty’s financial advisor Anton van der Merve for the entire duration to of my relationship with Liberty. I previously had life cover and other products with Liberty. I have since cancelled all other products with Liberty leaving only my life cover which I pay 695.55 for. All this time of having my policy with Liberty I was not aware the cover I had was not comprehensive and even considered adding additional extras on it such as income protection at some stage.

So when in January 2022 I did a comparative quote with a financial adviser from elsewhere I was made aware that something was amiss when she looked at the amount I was paying for the life cover and commented that it was so low. She then asked for the full details of my policy so she could understand what constituted that 695.55 amount before doing the comparative quote for me. I discovered at the point after confirming with Anton that I was only covered for Death and disability and not dread – meaning that my life cover with Liberty was not comprehensive as I had believed.

Upon realizing this I was disappointed in myself for not having picked this up sooner and started to doubt the advice and service from Anton. I then called the Liberty call center and tried to initiate the updates that I need for myself with the call centre. After I explained to them the situation and what I wanted they referred me back to Anton for me to ask him to initiate the changes - which I did. All this time I had already started to develop a feeling of mistrust for him - hence I had already tried to leave him out of the process of initiating the changes and was disappointed when I was directed back to him.

Nonetheless I asked him to update and he sent me forms to sign which I did on 2022/03/03. He then said a nurse would be sent to do medicals - he didn’t outline what medicals she would do.

The nurse - whose name I now have been told is Charmaine Conway - called and made an appointment with me. When she arrived on 10 March 2022 I realized that she had done medicals on me before. This was back in 2020 when I tried to add income protection to my policy- and she was took my blood pressure reading, found that it was high and advised me to see a doctor to confirm the reading and advise on whether it was serious and based on that advise on next steps. I then shared with her that I had been Pregnant in 2019 and had developed high blood pressure related to pregnancy and that perhaps it was now ongoing post pregnancy.

Nonetheless because of the major back and forth I ended not going ahead with the income protection anyway and intended to rather ask Anton to do it when my blood pressure was controlled - pending the advise from the doctor. I was not aware at this time that this was only the beginning of the back and forth I was to experience in my dealings with Liberty.

This time when Charmaine came she outlined and disclosed all the tests that she was sent to do, terms etc and I consented. As I was getting up to go do my urine for her I mentioned that in addition to the high blood pressure medication that I take Daily to manage my hypertension I had just gone to the doctor for stress I was experiencing at the moment and he had prescribed some meds - I told her the names of the meds.

We didn’t discuss it further. She never disclosed to me that this was material information that would impact the changes I was making to my life cover. Had she disclosed I would - just like with the high blood pressure not move ahead with the changes as I had previously experienced the headache of dealing with Liberty before with regards to medicals related to my blood pressure.

Had she disclosed she also would have received more context from me ( And been able to do a more thorough nurse note in her feedback to Liberty) as to why I was stressed and taking the meds on that temporary basis and would have found out that since January 2022 my helpers husband (the helper I live with, who is like family to me) had been ill, to the point of needing to have adult diapers used on him and I had been the main source of support for my helper (taking her to see him in hospital etc) who is from Lesotho and had only me as her only familial relation in Gauteng. My entire extended family was aware of this illness and would check up on us from time to time because of it over the period of three months that we were going through this experience. Catherine would have been able to add those notes on that aspect with all the numbers she recorded during the medical I.e blood pressure, hiv sugar etc.

Charmaine explained and disclosed everything she did during the medical and what I could expect from Liberty afterwards EXCEPT the aspect of me taking the medication that I had disclosed with her and more importantly what would follow with regards to this aspect now that I’ve told her I was taking the medication at that time.

So I was surprised when after she had left when the next day I received a call from Anton’s pa , who was barely able to explain what it was all about except to say, “you must have said something to the nurse because now you must complete these forms and get your doctor to complete them”. I agreed with little to no I understanding of what I was consenting to. Lo and behold my privacy and personal information was about to be violated. The doctor at Medicross who is not my family doctor as I only go there for convenience of proximity to my house was unbeknownst to me about to diagnose me with anxiety disorder. My family doctor is in fact Jabulani- who knows me from childhood and actually hears me in the consult - would have been better placed had known I actually known the forms I was being made to fill out were intended to delve in into my medical history from as far back as 2015 and would conclude with me being diagnosed with such a serious illness as anxiety disorder - again unbeknownst to ME, and without my consent.

However at this point I was still in the dark with what was actually taking place - but I started to wonder why this policy change was taking so long and why Anton is not reverting with feedback since my medicals. I even then called Anton’s PA who said its normal when I said this is taking abnormally long. I let it be for another week or so. Still when I received no update from Anton I sent him two follow up emails to him on 2022/03/04 and on 2022/04/07 and cc’ed his pa in both. My emails simply asked “Hi there, any update on this?” Both my emails went unanswered from either of them. That’s when I logged the complaint on Hello Peter.

I was then responded to by your complaints department who also said they would ask Anton’s sales manager to look into it. After that Hello Peter log and the Liberty Complaints department got involved that prompted an unsolicited response from Anton on 2022/04/11 to me stating that the underwriters had issue with two things: My anxiety; And that I’m not sleeping. I was so confused by this response. So to his emails to me with the above points I then responded with the below context for Anton: My helper who Iives with me, her husband had been ill since January 2022 and had died. My helper is like family to me. For context.

After that email I suddenly I realized what was taking place behind my back and without my consent. I had been diagnosed with a disorder that I never knew I had by Dr Dunne and Liberty and both institutions were placing my family’s financial future in jeopardy.

I then called the Clinic manager at Medicross and shared that I had concerns about what Dr Dunne may have said in my medical form that I had been asked by Liberty to have him fill out. I asked him what recourse I had as this was something that was now having a material impact on me and my children. He said he would talk to Dr Dunne and ask him to call me. The Dr called me back on the very same day that I had called his Clinic manager and clarified that Liberty assumed he was diagnosing with Anxiety when he had not done that and sent me a letter stating that the very next morning to rectify this. I have furnished you with this letter where he clarifies his stance and the medical context. I’m still shocked that Medicross and its Doctor has the right to pull my medical info from almost 8 years ago for Liberty- and I had supposedly consented to that - NOT TRUE. I definitely did not consent to that.

As someone who has hypertension and has been diagnosed with it, and takes medication daily for it, I understand the importance of disclosing an illness that one has. However when I went to see Dr Dunne I had only consulted HIM back in 2018 with regard to any stress related matter. Any other times were not consultations with him anyway. The rest of my consultations with him were for other things flu etc.

The most recent time that I consulted with Dr Dunne who filled out the medical form, before this period of dealing with my helpers husbands death, I had last consulted him when I had Covid in December 2021 so how could he now have enough context about me to diagnose me with anxiety disorder in April 2022 – without telling me, giving me an explanation of what the condition is and how it relates to the symptoms I was there to see him with or an instruction to get on chronic medication for anxiety, at least even a referral to a specialist for that matter. I am no clinician, but I know that his responsibility as a doctor would have been to either get me on chronic medication permanently for the condition or refer me to a specialist had he believed that I had this disorder.

I feel that what I have described above in the actions of Liberty and its representatives and Medicross are various instances where there was blatant disregard for my human dignity and my patient rights to fully being fully disclosed to by Liberty, the Liberty nurse and DR Dunne/ Medicross. My suspicion is that this treatment directed at me in this moment is deeply rooted in the systemic ****** that we as black people like myself experience where as part of it we are not afforded the dignity that other people in the very same context would receive.

Therefore since I have a strong suspicion that systemic ****** and racial biases have contributed to how I was treated I would like the following steps to be taken as ****** and ************** is ******* in SA:

1. For Charmaine, the Nurse who didn’t disclose to me that her record of all the cases that she has done or undertaken on behalf of Liberty be analysed for similar patterns in outcomes with regards to her dealings with patients of colour. I would furthermore like to be furnished with some sort of proof that this has been done. This I believe will protect other black Liberty patients like myself that she may be assigned to do medicals on in future and that she affords them the full disclosure that they deserve as humans and patients.

2. I then would also like that levels of customer service on Anton’s clients are monitored closely to ensure he is not treating other black Liberty clients the way that he treated me – with disregard and lack of care after all these years of my business.

My trust relationship with Liberty has been broken and I have since instructed Anton to cancel the risk changes I had asked for as am left with a bad taste in my mouth with regards to Liberty, your level of nursing care, and his customer service. There is nothing that comes from Liberty that I can trust anymore. I have asked Anton, in writing, to keep my current life cover (that I currently pay 695.55 per month for) basic as it is in force. I will be cancelling it at a later date on a separate written communication that will also stipulate the exact date that the cover should cease.

I have experienced unimaginable trauma, which has also affected my children, as a result of this entire saga with Liberty. The trauma of ************** affects the brain in the same place as a physical trauma does.

With all that has taken place and the way that I have been treated by Liberty I cannot imagine leaving the matter of my life cover – something so important - with Liberty with the levels of mistrust I know have in the brand and its associated individuals. As a single mother whose two children depend wholly on me financial and otherwise - That would be literally mean I’m gambling with my children’s financial safety.

I have never had my dignity so blatantly disregarded and my privacy invaded. I am seriously considering logging a POPIA violation against both Liberty and Medicross as I am concerned that Liberty was furnished with my medical records from as far back a 2015 when the forms that I filled out (with no real full disclosure on what the forms were and why they were being required from Liberty’s side bar from the disjointed explanation about them from Anton’s PA) were based on a history/timeline of 24 months. That to me is oversharing of info in the context of POPIA. I will get direction from the Information regulator etc in terms of the limits to access to information by insurance companies and doctors/medicross.

For my wellbeing and peace of mind from ************** - I have decided that I will never have any business dealings with Liberty and will ensure that I advise all my loved ones and friends on social media to beware of your practices and to avoid you at all cost.

Regards

Ziphezinhle Msimango