Negligence and insurance

Hi Mr. Tan

Kindly advise me on the following :-

(a) Under S'pore Insurance laws, is payment made out of Medisave of a plaintiff (pedestrain) claimable against the Insurer of a defendent motorist?

(b) What if payment is paid out of any Medishield / Healthshield policy of the patient first, is it claimable against the Insurer of a defendent motorist?

(c) In the above cases, which Insurer is the first party to bear the claim? Insurer of the defendent motorist or Medishield insurer of the pedestrain?

(d) If the a company has a welfare scheme and paid a sum to assist an employee (pedestrain) due to the accident due to financial hardship, and that sum is used to pay part of hospital costs first, can that employee still claim against the insurer of the motorist ? Any implication if the welfare assistance is paid direct to the hospital instead of direct payment to that employee?

Hope you can clarify.

CH

REPLY

This is a legal issue. I am not familiar with this matter. In my view, and I am not a legal expert, the position will be as follows:

> You are entitled to claim for your loss, due to the negligence of the other party
> You are certainly allowed to claim for payment made from Medisave (which is your own savings)
> You can also claim for expenses that are paid by your insurance policy (e.g. Medishield) or by the company's welfare scheme
> The liability for the payment by the negligent party applies to the total expenses (regardless of the status of insurance)
> I do not know if the insurer (of Medishield) or employer will ask you to repay back the expenses that have been successfully claimed from the negligent party - but it is a separate matter.

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