Get rewards with your health insurance

These days many health insurance funds are not only offering health benefits but “healthy” benefits as well.

Healthy benefits can include incentives such as discounted access to health-related products and services or benefits that reward members for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Healthy habits assist in preventing health conditions such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes and by offering their members the opportunity to be healthier, these funds are also helping to reduce the number of claims they are likely to face in the future.

1. Sign up member rewards

Usually included in the extras component of a policy, these rewards can include discounted gym memberships, children’s swimming classes, quit smoking classes, group exercise classes, weight loss programs, Cancer Council UV products, health screenings and online health assessments.

Examples of health funds offering such incentives include:

• Medibank Member rewards. Save up to 25% off casual gym visits with GymBetter, get 20% off Michelle Bridges 12WBT, 25% off Fitbit trackers and Aria scales and 25% off selected TomTom sports products.
• Teachers Health Fund rewards. Get 15% off online prices at AOK for exercise equipment including heart rate monitors, kettlebells and yoga mats, 25% off any new Jenny Craig or Jen4Men membership and 3 free group training sessions at Step into Life.
• ahm rewards. Save 25% off a range of Fitbit trackers, 20% off 12WBT and 15% off active life with your membership number.
• myOwn rewards. As a member, you get access to AIA Vitality. There are big savings to be made with 50% off Virgin gym memberships, 30% off Fitness First and discounted rates at Anytime Fitness.
• Bupa rewards. Get 10% off 3 and 12-month contract memberships at Fitness First, save on healthy food guide magazine, 20% off Garmin products and 15% off Goodlife health clubs.

2. Get everyday rewards for staying healthy

Once their members begin to embrace a healthier lifestyle, health funds are then offering them incentives to remain that way. These can be any kind of reward (not just health-related) for maintaining good health and can include things like movie tickets, Flybuy points and cheap airfares.

Examples of health funds offering such rewards include:

• Qantas Health Insurance. Offering up to 110,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer Points to new members who sign up for top health cover plus the chance to earn up to an additional 20,000 Qantas Points per year by participating in daily and weekly health challenges.
• myOwn. Rewards members who stay healthy by participating in its AIA Vitality program with benefits including Woolworths vouchers, Hoyts cinema tickets, discounts on flights and cash back from some of Australia's biggest gyms everytime you visit.
• Medibank. When you sign up to health insurance and link an eligible Fitbit wireless device, you can collect 10 flybuys points for each day you hit 10,000 steps.

3. Health management benefits

As well as encouraging people to get healthy and stay that way, some health funds are providing practical assistance with health issues in the form of free or discounted access to programs and classes related to specific health issues.

These can include chronic illness recovery classes, diabetes management programs, asthma management classes, weight management programs, depression and anxiety management programs, osteoarthritis management programs, pregnancy and newborn care advice, heart health programs and nutritionist and exercise physiology consultations.

Examples of health funds offering such benefits include:

• Australian Unity. Offers access to a wide range of programs including Receiving Mental Health Support, Living With Chronic Conditions, Preparing for Parenthood and Receiving Hospital Care In Your Own Home.
• Defence Health. Pays benefits for selected health screening tests not covered by Medicare including bowel screening, kidney checks, bone density tests, mole mapping, mammograms, specialist eye tests and heart tests such as x-ray and echocardiogram.

As with the other incentives and rewards offered by health funds, the underlying aim is to improve members’ general health and wellbeing and in so doing, to reduce the insurer’s level of risk.

Regardless of the motivation, that’s surely a win-win situation for everyone.

Compare your health insurance options today

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