Affordable Health Insurance Options for the over Fifty’s
When the need for health insurance is the greatest an alarming proportion of consumers over 50 are cancelling their
health insurance for affordability reasons. This at a time where there are concerns for the future funding of health
care costs in New Zealand.
Des Morgan Director of Kiwi Discount Club an online insurance broker said “whether we like it or not the reality is in
the future people are going to have to pay a greater share of their heath costs”.
Mr Morgan said there are worthwhile options to counter the affordability issue. He advocates the use of voluntary
excesses. An excess is the amount of money you’ll need to contribute towards the total cost of any claim you make for
each diagnostic investigation or treatment.
If your policy excess is $1,000 and you have a health claim costing $12,000, the insurer will pay $11,000 and you’ll
need to contribute $1,000. Having a higher excess will still protect you against the bigger treatment costs, allowing
you to self insure to a degree that you are able to handle he said.
Mr Morgan quoted an example of a couple both aged 55. With the standard no excess plan your annual premium would be in
the vicinity of $3,500 depending on your chosen insurer but by nominating a $1,000 excess the annual premium reduces to
approximately $2,600 an annual savings of around $900 in the first year alone.
Mr Morgan through his online site kiwidiscountclub.co.nz offers a 30% cash rebate on the first year’s heath insurance premiums to Kiwi Club members. “We are able to achieve
this as we are rebating a percentage of the commission that the insurers pay our contracted Insurance Broker by way of a
commission on new business submitted”.
As you are completing your own needs analysis and purchasing online our broker does not have the same operating costs
that most insurance brokers have so they are able to pass on the savings to Kiwi Discount Club who in turn passes this
on to Kiwi Club members. Membership to the Kiwi Discount Club is free he said.
In the above example the cash rebate would equate to $780 and if this was tucked away in a savings account it would go a
long way towards the $1,000 voluntary excess in the event of an illness Morgan said.
ENDS