Ms MaryRose McGovern:

I thank the Senator. Starting with the customer service piece, the role of this office is to investigate individual complaints. Where any complaint is received that has a customer service element, we will investigate that and if we find that the complaint should be upheld, we will direct compensation as appropriate. We share our insights and outcomes around that piece to do with customer service complaints and those 1,500 decisions are available in our database of decisions. We want all providers, consumers and consumer bodies to be familiar with those decisions in order that there can be an understanding as to how we approach the sorts of issues that arise when customer service is delivered in a way that is poor.

Coming back to travel insurance, whatever the size of the print, our expectation is that the wording should be clear. It should not be a struggle for the policyholder to read the provisions and understand whether they are covered. One of the case studies in our travel insurance digest concerned Mark and Sandra, who were abroad and headed off on a three-hour hike. When they came back, their rental car had been broken into and their valuables were gone. One policy provision said in that instance that valuables that were left in a locked car would not be covered. Not too far away, however, was another policy provision that indicated that valuables left in a locked vehicle would only be covered if it was between daylight hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Those were completely and utterly in conflict. That is simply not acceptable. A person should be able to pick up his or her policy and be able to see the headings and negotiate it. I would urge and encourage consumers, and I am conscious it is that time of year, which is why we published the travel digest at that time, who are looking at accepting travel insurance policies to have a look at the digest and some of those other case studies.

Sometimes, there is not an understanding as to the cover one is putting in place and particularly around the issue of pre-existing medical conditions. We can be very optimistic about our own health. We might think we are absolutely fine but if a person had blood tests last month or X-rays or whatever it might be, even if his or her condition does not have a name, it may be a pre-existing condition because there is something at play that is under investigation at the moment. Before I finish up with the Senator, I might ask my colleague, Dr. Carroll, to come in on issues arising out of some of those questions.