It is stigmatisation at its worst for insurance companies to subject their would be clients to medical check-up with the intention of avoiding those who are unhealthy.
While it is common knowledge that insurance companies are not operated on a philanthropy basis, it is also important for these companies to understand that they have a responsibility to the society. People with chronic diseases have a right to access services from insurance companies just like those who are healthy.
The most disheartening thing is that even the check-up is done without the knowledge of the clients, that it determines their eligibility for signing a contract. They are hoodwinked to believe that the check-up is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility. This is in total breach of fundamental human rights which the constitutions do not even grant but just confirm. It is one’s inalienable right to know why any action is being taken against him.
I am pretty sure, beyond reasonable doubt, that this violation of human rights by insurance companies would cause freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela to weep. At this point, Mandela’s words in the Infamous 1964 Rivonia Trial come to my mind. He told the honourable Judge that `I have cherished the ideal of a free and Democratic Society where all people live together in harmony and with EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES. It is the ideal I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is the ideal for which I am prepared to die. `
Samuel Kazibwe
making finance journalism work 