Are you happy with your health insurance?
Find out which health fund holds onto the most members.
Did you get a notification that your private health insurance premiums are going up and are now looking around for a better deal? You're not alone. Every year before the 1 April price hike, Australians do their best to find a policy that offers better value for money.
If you are looking for a new fund, one useful tool is the annual Private Health Insurance Ombudsman (PHIO) State of the Health Funds Report (SOHFR), which looks at the number of complaints a fund gets, how much a fund covers for various extras treatments and how many members a fund retains.
Looking at member retention is a great way to assess how a fund is doing, as it lets you see whether or not a fund is haemorrhaging members and which ones are better at holding onto its customers.
Out of the open membership funds with a market share greater than 0.5% HBF, which is potentially merging with HCF, did the best in 2016-17, retaining 97% of its members. It was followed by Health Partners (89%) and Bupa (85%). Out of the larger funds, GMHBA ranked the lowest for retention with 63%. Out of the larger restricted funds, Teachers Health performed the best with 93.26%.
Out of the smaller open funds, Onemedifund came out on top with 94.58%. And for the smaller restricted funds, ACA was in the number one spot with 93.06%.
On average, the restricted funds outperformed the open member funds overall, with an average retention rate of 89.7% versus 78.42%.
If we look back over the last five years, this trend holds true with restricted funds retaining 90.71% of their members over that time, with open funds averaging 82.85%. Over that period the best performing larger fund was still HBF, with 90.8%. It was closely followed by Health Partners (89.06%) and Westfund (88.08%).
If you're looking to ditch or switch health insurance this March, make sure you've reviewed your options before doing so. Also be sure to check out what incentives health funds are offering to win your business.
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