Medshield Medical Aid

I was a member of Medshield for over 20 years. When I was suddenly told I had to have spinal surgery, they declined authorisation saying it was excluded under my plan. Any other knee, hip or shoulder surgery was fully covered but spine and neck surgery was limited to PMB only. This is actually in the exclusions and I had neglected to go through all the small print, I admit. It is a one liner on page 35 of 36 pages in print you need to zoom in on to see. The doctor sent really serious motivation letters explaining that, if left for any longer, this will become an emergency and then they would have to do it anyway but because by some miracle and due to my muscles strength, I am still upright they dug in their heals. I requested to go up a plan in March. I was told I need to wait for them to present that at a board sitting at the end of April. I subsequently decided to cancel and change medical aids because the medical aid I went with will only impose a 3 month waiting period because I have had uninterrupted medical aid for so long. I am now in that waiting period in excruciating nerve pain which is getting steadily worse and as long as I don't suffer paralysis or lack of bladder control, I will have the surgery in August. I write this because, after 20 years of faithful membership, I feel that Medshield could have helped me in whichever way possible and they just were not flexible at all. I'm in a bad way because I chose to stay loyal to them. My pain level is unbearable and my heart broken