151 –Keeping Margaret Alive, Part 2: 19 January 2025

We visited Granite Island on Sunday 17 February 2019.  It is very pretty, but it is in fact a rock covered by a thin layer of soil – so it is barren.

By February 2022, my heart felt as barren as Granite Island and as barren as the sea surrounding it.

Margaret was dying and the health insurers had zero interest in obeying the law and zero interest in helping cancer patients live.

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This is a sea view from Granite Island taken on Sunday 17 February 2019.

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Throughout February 2021, our health insurer HCF continued to completely ignore all claims we lodged for treatments given to Margaret by Lift Cancer Care Services.

To prevent the Ombudsman from dismissing our complaints about HCF on the ground the loss had not been suffered by us but by Lift Cancer Care, I made Lift give us an invoice for $6,978.00 and I then paid it.  

This made no difference to the conduct of HCF or the conduct of the Ombudsman.  HCF and the Ombudsman continued to ignore the law.

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In previous blogs, I have already recounted details of my unrelenting battle to force the health insurers to obey the law.  There is no need for me to repeat that story here.

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Although she had been so close to death at the start of December 2021, Margaret remained in relatively good health after I got her home on 3 December 2021 and she received three treatments from Lift Cancer Care in January 2022.  This Table summarises the Lift claims we lodged with HCF and what HCF did with them.  

As part of the scam it has been able to get away with, and with what must have been the approval of the Australian Health Department and the Commonwealth Ombudsman, HCF simply pretended the claims never existed.

Date of Clam (January 2022)	Claim Paid or Unpaid?	Notification to Us?
7 January*	No	No
18 January**	No	No
25 January***	No	No

* Emailed on 22 February 2022 to Junita Lindsay at HCF with Letter dated 12 January 2022

** Emailed on 4 February 2022 to Junita Lindsay at HCF with Letter dated 4 February 2022

*** Emailed on 12 February 2022 to Junita Lindsay at HCF with Letter dated 12 February 2022

I emailed claims for these treatments to Junita Lindsay, Complaint Resolution Officer at HCF.  Junita had told me she was “investigating” the complaints I had made to HCF in my letter dated 3 December 2021.  We both knew this was a complete lie.

Each of these claims was ignored by HCF.  In January 2025, three years after they were lodged with HCF – and even though they have now been paid because of the extreme pressure I placed on HCF – these claims still have no existence on my HCF claims history record.

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I had a phone conversation with Sarah De Sade from the Ombudsman in the morning of Friday 18 February 2022.  During this phone call, it became clear to me that the Ombudsman intended to dismiss our multiple complaints on the spurious ground that most of our HCF claims did not cause any financial loss to us because the loss had been suffered by Lift Cancer Care Services.  I was determined to eliminate this as a reason why the Ombudsman might try and dismiss our complaints.

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Immediately after the call from Sarah De Sade, I rang Lauren Whiting, Chief Executive of Lift Cancer Care Services, and asked her to give us an invoice for all of the Lift treatments for which Lift had not been paid by HCF.  Lauren was very reluctant to do this.  She said Margaret and I ought not be required to remedy the refusal of HCF to obey the law. 

I insisted that we be sent an invoice for the unpaid treatments.

The invoice from Lift Cancer Care Services is dated 18 February 2022.  It lists the dates of all treatments for which HCF had refused payment, plus the unpaid balances of those treatments.  The 18 February 2022 invoice came to $6,978.00 and I paid the $6,978.00 to Lift Cancer Care Services on Sunday 20 February 2022.

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Inexplicably, Margaret's relatively good health continued throughout February 2022.  We continued occupying that extraordinarily safe place labelled God’s Pocket.  Although I suspected this could not last, I ignored the probability the cancer would return and I would lose Margaret.

Margaret was much smarter than me.  She knew this cancer remission could not last forever.  She loved me, so she did not tell me what she knew.

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Margaret had three treatments at Lift Cancer Care in February 2022.  This Table summarises the claims lodged with HCF and what HCF did with them.

Date of Clam (February 2022)	Claim Paid or Unpaid?	Notification to Us?
2 February*	No	No
10 February**	No	No
23 February***	No	No

* Emailed on 24 February 2022 to Junita Lindsay at HCF with Letter dated 24 February 2022

** Emailed on 10 March 2022 to Junita Lindsay at HCF with Letter dated 10 March 2022

*** Emailed on 19 March 2022 to Junita Lindsay at HCF with Letter dated 19 March 2022

Each of the claims for Lift services given to Margaret in February 2022 was ignored by HCF.  They have now been paid, but they still do not exist on our HCF claims history record.

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I did not know it in February 2022, but Margaret’s continued survival despite the cancer, depended NOT on winning the struggle with the health insurers, but on the indefinite continuation of the struggle with the health insurers.

Winning the battle with the health insurers meant Margaret’s cancer remission would cease and the cancer would resume its march towards Margaret’s death.