Two significant price changes have been announced. There is a summary of the details below.
Partners Life changes:
The pricing for the following protection benefits will be changing for new policies issued from the 11th of September 2017.
- YRT life cover will be reducing by up to 7.5% in the age range of 25-50, depending on gender and smoking status. Over age 50, the premiums will be increasing slightly.
- YRT trauma and TPD will be reducing by up to 2.5% from ages 30-45, depending on gender and smoking status. Over age 50, the premiums will be increasing slightly.
- YRT Income Cover, Mortgage Repayment, Household Expenses and Premium cover will be increasing slightly over age 50.
- Medical premiums will increase by 10%, across the board.
The pricing of protection benefits not listed above will remain unchanged.
Sovereign changes:
Trauma and Health Rate Changes
From September, existing clients aged between 16 and 24 will have their premium rates for Progressive Care and Living Assurance brought into line with the rates we set for Children’s Trauma on 19 June 2017.
As a result, some clients will benefit from a premium decrease, and a small amount will experience a slight increase in their premiums.
Health premium rate changes
As of September, health premium rates will increase. This not only reflects medical inflation, but also ongoing developments in the private healthcare system, which give patients access to new and improved procedures and treatments; and as a consequence increase the value of your clients’ health insurance cover.
The changes to our health premium rates remain competitive in the New Zealand market, and are lower than a number of our key competitors.
Health rate increases
In line with our commitment to existing clients, the same base premium rate increases have been applied to our open health product (Private Health) and our closed health products (Absolute Health and MajorCare).
|
Base cover increase |
Adult |
Child |
|
Private Health Cover and Private Health Plus |
6.5% |
6.5% |
|
Absolute Health |
6.5% |
6.5% |
|
MajorCare |
6.5% |
6.5% |
|
Specialist and Diagnostic Testing Benefit (sold with Absolute Health and TotalCareMax range) |
6.5% |
6.5% |
The discount applied to clients' premiums depending on their excess option is also changing. This means clients who have certain excess options will receive an additional increase depending on their current excess option.
|
Product |
Customers excess option |
Average increase |
|
Private Health Cover |
$250 |
3% |
|
Private Health Cover |
$500 |
3% |
|
Private Health Cover |
$750 |
2% |
|
Private Health Plus |
$250 |
1% |
|
Specialist and Diagnostic Testing Benefit (sold with Absolute Health and TotalCareMax range) |
$300 |
3% |
|
Absolute Health and MajorCare – without specialist and diagnostic testing |
$300 |
3% |
|
Absolute Health and MajorCare – without specialist and diagnostic testing |
$600 |
3% |
|
MajorCare – with specialist and diagnostic testing |
$300 |
2% |
|
MajorCare – with specialist and diagnostic testing |
$600 |
4% |
|
MajorCare – with specialist and diagnostic testing |
$2,000 |
3% |
Finally, an age-related annual increase may also apply.
As an example of an increase that your clients may receive, a male non-smoker with Private Health Cover and a $500 excess who was 30 at their last renewal and will be 31 at their next renewal, will see a total increase of 10.5%.