When the pandemic hit Australia and reduced access to health services, health funds quickly looked for new ways to deliver services and value to people with health insurance.
This started with a promise not to profit from the pandemic lockdowns and restrictions, with health funds committing to return all savings from fewer claims to members. No other health sector group made this promise.
Between 2020 and 2024, health funds paid less in claims, so returned all savings to members through a range of measures including:
- Cashbacks into members’ bank accounts
- Deferred and cancelled premium rises, so members paid less for their health insurance
- Rollover of extras limits to the following year
- Financial hardship packages for people who couldn’t afford to pay their premiums.
Health funds also invested millions of dollars in COVID-19 support programs, focusing on members’ mental health and wellbeing. In addition to funding psychology telehealth and in-hospital mental health treatment, many funds introduced online mental health and wellbeing services to provide members with access to much needed support.
Health funds worked closely with regulators to honour this commitment, which was monitored by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Department of Health and Aged Care. In 2023, the ACCC confirmed the industry was on track to return more than $4.3 billion to consumers, with money still flowing to health insurance members this year.
Health funds returned savings over multiple years because APRA requires health insurers to set aside funds to pay for future claims deferred due to the pandemic.
As it became clear that some deferred claims (for example, six monthly dental check-ups) were not occurring and unlikely to be made up in future, health funds acted to return all permanent savings to members as promised.
The ACCC Report to the Australian Senate for the end 2022-2023 notes “the combined figure for all insurer givebacks totals over $4.3 billion, which exceeds the insurers’ combined assessed permanent claims savings of around $4.1 billion.”
Health funds continue to prioritise their members’ health and wellbeing and will always use their members’ money wisely to maximise value from policies.
Since the pandemic, Australians have signed up for private health insurance in record numbers to get rapid access to private healthcare services including hospital and dental treatment. Nearly 15 million Australians have private health cover. This is taking pressure off our stressed public hospitals which are still feeling the impact of record high waiting lists for care due to the pandemic.