Southern Cross to launch new health insurance for young people.

Some good news, following on the heels of our recent article on the benefits of getting insured while you're young: Southern Cross has announced the release of a new health insurance product for young people. Named the 'Wellbeing Starter' plan, it is an entry level plan based on extensive market research of 1,500 young adults and what they described their needs of a health insurance plan to be.

One of the main needs described was affordability, and Wellbeing Starter achieves this by excluding all coverage for orthopaedics, urology and gynaecology (unless these aspects are required for the treatment of cancers). Southern Cross state directly that this may not be the best plan once clients reach middle age, but its a great option while they're young and covers what young people deemed to be most important to them.

The Wellbeing Starter plan's benefits include $500,000 surgical cover, $100,000 cardiac cover, $60,000 cover for cancer treatments, including an additional $10,000 for non-Pharmac drugs. It also includes a  $40,000 prophylactic treatment allowance, $3000 for skin surgery. The plan will also cover 75% of GP and physio visits (up to $150), in response to the research which discovered that an everyday benefit was important for young people to have.

As more insurers become serious about reaching out to young people, the benefits of getting insured young will only increase. This is definitely a positive development in that regard, If you'd like to enquire about getting your health insured, you can request a free, no obligation quote at anytime. We may be able to secure you an even better deal on your premiums than you would find yourself.

Visit our official website for more information.

Visit the official Southern Cross website here.

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Insurance News Round Up

1. Quirky contents insurance claims highlighted to encourage customers. - Insurance Business Online

"Some customers don't make a claim because they don't realise their more unusual items are covered under their contents insurance" - AA Insurance gives a reminder to potential customers that they may be underestimating the value of their contents insurance and what is truly covered.

2. Where to find the best travel insurance. - Stuff.co.nz

Southern Cross Travel insurance, 1Cover and Worldcare have been named the travel insurance providers who best provides "outstanding value".

3. New Zealanders lack insurance for their most important asset. - Stuff.co.nz

Whilst 95% of Kiwis have cover for their homes, cars or possessions, only a mere 30 percent of New Zealanders are covered by health insurance and only 57% have life cover.

4. Southern Cross Travel Insurance reveals the extent of fake claims. - Voxy.co.nz

SCTI have revealed the regular extent of fraudulent travel insurance claims they receive, estimating upwards of 1500 cases a year may be fake claims.

5. Sovereign targets underinsured millenials in latest insurance campaign. - Good Returns

New digital led campaign aims to combat excuses, empowering young Kiwis to stand up and take charge of their financial wellbeing.

www.sprattfinancial.co.nz

Medical Insurance Special Offer

Spratt Financial and Southern Cross are proud to offer new clients a special deal so that you can get the medical insurance you need. A lot of people struggle with getting medical insurance for their pre-existing conditions. With this deal, once your policy has been in place for three years, nearly all types of pre-existing conditions will be covered! Better yet, we have been able to obtain additional discounts to make medical insurance even more cost-effective.

Features of this offer are as follows:

•             Pre-existing medical conditions will be covered after three years*
•             Receive a 10% discount off your first year’s premiums
•             Receive an additional 10% Healthy Lifestyle Discount – if eligible
•             A further 2.5% discount for payment with Direct Debit
•             This gives a total 22.5% discount on first year’s premium and 12.5% discount thereafter

This offer closes 30^th September 2015, so take advantage of this fantastic opportunity, you can contact us by email here or through our website's easy contact form.

*A few Chronic Conditions may be excluded, which we can discuss with you. 

Largest Southern Cross Travel Claims 2014/15

In the wake of Southern Cross announcing that they would be waiving the 'trivial' $100 excess from their travel insurance policies, they have also released the top 10 largest travel insurance claims from the past year, demonstrating just how necessary appropriate travel insurance can really be.

The list itself for the first time does not include only New Zealanders claiming from travel overseas. A claim totalling $236,000 was made by a foreigner who suffered a stroke while travelling through New Zealand and was forced into hospitalisation with an extended treatment. The CEO of Southern Cross Travel Insurance remarked that in comparison to any of these claims, the small cost of insuring your travel paled into insignificance.

The full list is as follows:

Highest value travel insurance claims for 2014:

1. $405,000 - surgery required for cancer in the USA.

2. $365,000 - air evacuation after a brain bleed and heart attack in North America.

3. $285,000 - blood clot while travelling caused a cardiac arrest on a plane, admitted to hospital in the US.

4. $236,000 - a tourist visiting New Zealand suffered a stroke requiring extensive hospitalisation and rehabilitation and transport to home country by air ambulance.

5. $193,000 - suffered a stroke in Europe, required air ambulance.

6. $177,000 - fell from a roof and fractured several leg bones in the USA.

7. $122,000 - family member of an international student diagnosed with cancer.

8. $120,000 - hit by a motorcycle in South East Asia.

9. $112,000 - heart attack while visiting New Zealand, required surgery and rehabilitation.

10. $105,000 - accidental fall resulting in broken bones in Europe

Source: Southern Cross Travel Insurance.

Whether you are travelling overseas, or you are a tourist looking to visit New Zealand, organising travel insurance should be the top of your priority list. Unless, of course, you have a spare $400,000 you're looking to offload.

Read how travel insurance bailed me out on my trip to the USA.

Read my experiences with the Southern Cross Travel claims process.

Need a free, no obligation quote? Use our contact form here.

Breaking Financial News

1. Asteron receives A+ rating from Standard and Poor's. - Good Returns

Asteron, New Zealand's fourth largest life insurer received a confirmation of its strong market position as S & P granted it an A+ rating for financial strength. New business has increased 14% to build further upon their 41% increase of the previous year.

2. New pandemic insurance to prevent crisis with early payouts. - Yahoo! New Zealand

In the past, governments have been forced to raise funds in the aftermath of disease outbreaks. The World Bank, the African Union and other financial institutions are attempting to circumvent this by designing insurance schemes which will pay out immediately as an outbreak happens, providing the funds to better manage the crisis before it fully takes hold.

3. Celebrities insuring their body parts for up to $40 million. - MTV.com

According to celebrity insiders, Taylor Swift's legs are worth $40 million and Kim Kardashian has had her derriere insured too. Famous singers have insured their voice and piano players have insured their fingers through brokers for a princely sum.

4. Southern Cross axes 'trivial' Travel Insurance Excess. - NZ Herald

In great news for travellers and Southern Cross members, Southern Cross have removed the $100 excess for travel insurance claims, calling the amount 'trivial' and unnecessary. Southern Cross hoped that the removal of the excess would encourage travellers to seek medical attention for minor ailments.

5. Crowded Kiwisaver market sparks concern. - Good Returns

With so many Kiwisaver providers on the market, fears are arising that things as they are will become unsustainable. A major expert in the field says that he could imagine a future with only a few large providers with multi-sector portfolios.

Financial News Roundup October 2014

1. Some Insurers refusing payouts to injuries suffered while drunk. - NZ Herald

2. Southern Cross posts a $1 million annual loss. - NZ Herald

3. BNZ cuts its 2 year mortgage rate. - Interest.co.nz

4. Auckland house prices rise to a new record. - NZ Herald

5. Fidelity Life posts record result. - Good Returns

6. Here's how Generation Y can buy a house. - Andrew King

7. NZX 50 is weathering the financial storm. - Mark Lister

Visit us at www.sprattfinancial.co.nz 

Financial News Roundup

1. Why women get a raw deal when it comes to insurance. - Diana Clement (NZ Herald)

2. Submarine Businessman charged over a $22 million insurance scam. - NZ Herald

3. Implementing a long term wellness solution for your business. - Southern Cross

4. How to manage finance for a modern blended family. - Spicers.co.nz

5. How telematics is revolutionising car insurance. - NZ Herald

6. Tower Insurance has sold its remaining Life Insurance business to Foundation Life - Good Returns

7. Auckland's house price average rises to record high. - NZ Herald

For more info on our services, head to www.sprattfinancial.co.nz

Important Health Insurance Facts from Southern Cross

Last week at the Spratt Financial offices, we received our annual presentation from higher ups at Southern Cross, New Zealand's biggest health insurance providers. Some of the facts mentioned were really interesting so we decided to share!

• A lack of medical insurance is according to statistics the biggest contributor to mortgagee sales in the country. Mortgagee sales for those who don't know, refers to the bank or lender selling a home from underneath the owners when they are unable to make mortgage payments. Unexpected medical, surgical or health costs when someone doesn't have insurance is the main contributor to people losing their homes and that was the most shocking fact of all to us.
• The majority of claims to Southern Cross come from those aged 65. 
• If you drink less than 2 glasses of alcohol per day, are a non smoker and exercise 3 times per week you can receive a 10% discount on your health insurance premiums. 
• The cost of the most common procedures used to treat the following disorders are as follows (based on Southern cross' 2012 claims data):
  - Heart Disease: $38,000 - $57,000
  - Skin Cancer: $800 - $3,900 for removal of lesions.
  - Osteoarthritis: $19,000 - $25,000
  - Prostrate Cancer: $15,000 - $21,000
  - Digestive Problems: $400 - $1,800 for Gastroscopy.
  - Breast Cancer: $7,000 - $12,000 for unilateral Mastectomy.
  - Cataracts: $3,100 - $4,700
  - Endometriosis: $6,000 - $14,000
• For every one dollar paid to Southern Cross in premiums, Southern Cross pays back an average of 90 cents to their members in claims (based on the previous 5 years figures averaged).
• Southern Cross has no shareholders or overseas owners. We were told this is because they would rather service New Zealanders than be beholden to any outside financial interests.
• During the 2013 financial year, Southern Cross paid out $639.1 million in claims.
• Southern Cross currently services 817,822 members in New Zealand.
• In a worrying industry wide trend, Southern cross' member numbers decreased in 2013. Southern Cross numbers dropped by 0.5% compared to an overall trend in the industry of 0.7%. SC are attempting to draw attention to the negative consequences of not having medical cover (including the mortgagee sales example above) to reverse this trend.
• Southern Cross has an A+ financial strength rating given by Standard and Poor's.

Interested in Health Insurance?  Call us on 09 307 8200 or email enquiry@sprattfinancial.co.nz

Travel Insurance Claim Update

A few weeks back I arrived back to Auckland after an amazing two week journey to the United States. Awesome that is, apart from my journey home being affected by cancelled flights, leading me to have to stay another two nights in LA that I had not budgeted for! (Read the full story here)

Today, after I had filed the claim with Southern Cross Travel Insurance a few days earlier, everything was sorted and my claim was accepted. It was easier than I had anticipated too. All I had to do was fill out some forms, which weren't as daunting or lengthy as you might expect, and attach the relevant receipts and hotel information. There were also facilities on their website that let me do it all online if I had chosen to. They then were excellent in updating me on the process by email and by phone.

They said it would be processed within six days and it ended up being done in two. All in all, having the cover only set me back $70, whereas not having it and having to pay for my added expenses out of pocket would have set me back over $500. That's a considerable return on my investment. I admit to once scoffing at 'unnecessary' travel insurance, but after this, never again.

Thanks to Southern Cross Travel Insurance too for processing everything so quickly and efficiently.

News Roundup 31st March

1. Sending Kiwis overseas for cheap surgical procedures ruled out by Southern Cross - NZ Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/insurance/news/article.cfm?c_id=234&objectid=11219536

2. Sovereign has had its A+ financial rating renewed for the seventh consecutive year - Good Returns
http://www.goodreturns.co.nz/article/976501782/nirvana-for-sovereign.html

3. NIB and Fidelity team up to offer health and life insurance bundle - Good Returns
http://www.goodreturns.co.nz/article/976501743/nib-policies-offer-value.html

4. Families of missing Malaysia Airlines flight get Insurance payout - Marlborough Express
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/9881525/Families-get-insurance-payouts

Health Insurance Top Claims 2013

In the past week, Southern Cross has released the statistics for the top five claim areas for men and women in each age band between 20 and 70.

Southern Cross Chief Executive Peter Tynan explains that the results show that people who are taking out health insurance need to check to ensure their policies cover what they need. Each age band was highly different in the type of surgeries or medical procedures that were most common, and knowing this information should inform your health insurance decisions.

Males between the ages of 20-30, whom Peter remarked often felt invincible and in our experience are the group that neglects health cover the most, nonetheless required claims most often for hernia repair, colonoscopy and excision of skin lesions. Women of the same age range claimed most often for freeing abdominal adhesions or ovarian cyst surgeries. These costly procedures required by people so young demonstrate the costs of being un-insured or underinsured, and we urge everyone to bear this in mind. I myself thank my lucky stars I got health insurance when I was young (or more accurately, my conscientious mother insisted on signing me up) because I've actually had to claim for a colonoscopy and a surgery, as well as many specialist visits after the age of 20 which I could never have foreseen.

It is also crucial that you think about medical insurance while you're healthy, as the presence of pre-existing conditions makes things very awkward, complicated and expensive, whilst it is clear sailing if you don't have any at the time of taking out your insurance.

Top 5 procedures, 20-29 age band

Women: Removal of teeth, endometriosis surgery, freeing abdominal adhesions, ovarian cystectomy, excision skin lesion.

Men: Removal of teeth, excision skin lesion, septoplasty, hernia repair, colonoscopy.

Top 5 procedures, 30-39

Women: Endometriosis surgery, hysterectomy, excision skin lesion, cholecystectomy, removal of teeth.

Men: Removal of teeth, colonoscopy, excision skin lesion, hernia repair, septoplasty.

Top 5 procedures, 40-49

Women: Hysterectomy, hysteroscopy, excision skin lesion, colonoscopy, endometriosis surgery.

Men: Colonoscopy, excision skin lesion, hip replacement, hernia repair, coronary angioplasty.

Top 5 procedures, 50-59

Women: Colonoscopy, hysterectomy, hip replacement, excision skin lesion, knee replacement.

Men: Hip replacement, colonoscopy, excision skin lesion, coronary angioplasty, hernia repair.

Top 5 procedures, 60-69

Women: Knee replacement, hip replacement, colonoscopy, cataract, excision skin lesion.

Men: Knee replacement, hip replacement, excision skin lesion, coronary angioplasty, colonoscopy.

Top 5 procedures, 70 plus

Women: Cataract, hip replacement, knee replacement, excision skin lesion, colonoscopy.

Men: Knee replacement, cataract, hip replacement, excision skin lesion, coronary angioplasty.

Contact us for information and the best deals on your health insurance.

Visit our official website for more information.

Read how health insurance helped me out when diagnosed with Crohn's Disease.

Notes from the Southern Cross Road Show 2013 (Part Two)

Recently one of our team attended the Southern Cross Health Insurance Roadshow. Here is part two of her experience from the event, and what the experts are saying about the current state of Southern Cross, health insurance in New Zealand, the private health care system and several forthcoming changes. For Part One, click here.

Southern Cross are going to try and implement an open contract strategy (currently being successfully practiced in the UK), which is open referral whereby members ring Southern Cross and they give a list of health care providers, this way there can be some restriction on the overpriced providers mentioned in part one as a drag on the New Zealand health insurance industry. The problem is that currently, the GP refers the patient to a specialist of their choice for whatever reason they choose. It could be that the GP thinks they are the best choice what they do, but it could also be that your GP plays golf with the neurosurgeon and he thinks he’s a great golf player. There is nothing in place in the current system to stop this from happening,. Southern Cross mentioned that unfortunately some of us can be passive and just go with what our GP says, no questions asked. How many of us actually research the specialist or ask for a portfolio? How many of us ring around for a second opinion? Also, as mentioned in Part One, people tend not to care about prohibitive costs when it is 100% covered by the insurer. They are somewhat unaware in this regard that if this problem of overcharging could be addressed, the insurance companies would have more room to lower premiums or offer more competitive rates, which would benefit them directly.

Southern Cross are implementing initiatives to counter overcharging and pass the savings on to the consumer.

In another forthcoming initiative, Southern Cross wants to gather patient information so that a Portfolio on specialists/surgeons can be available for members to actually read about the impending procedure from real people and real cases. This portfolio will divulge success and failure rates, return visits to hospital because procedures haven’t worked, infections caught whilst in hospital and all the relevant information that patients should have access to. This could save money, preventing procedures having to be repeated at Southern Cross' expense. When repeat procesures occur, it was detailed to us that getting the money returned to them involves the insurer battling ACC for medical misadventure as ACC doesn’t willingly pay over the money. Last year, Southern Cross got $6 million recuperated but this was not enough to cover the extra expenditures and costs associated with repeats of procedures.

· 

We were informed in the presentation by Lars Bojsen-Moller that Skin Claims have risen 33% from last year, totalling 47,000 skin claims and $40 million paid out. One of the reasons for this is that GPs aren’t doing what they could be doing.  They are sending the patients to a skin specialist at a cost of $1500 when in some cases the doctors are very capable and more than qualified to carry out the same procedure for $400. When this happens many times it leads to a huge increase in costs which Southern Cross has to pay in claims.

Lars concluded his presentation with a point aiming to make us aware that some health insurance companies don’t word their policies correctly. You can think that you are covered for something but end up not being covered. This is something that clients who go it alone with their insurance have to be aware of and practise extra diligence, or use a broker such as ourselves who have the knowledge to avoid these possible pitfalls and get you just what you need. Wrapping up his presentation, Lars reminded us that Southern Cross have a lot of changes coming up, which hopefully should benefit their ability to give clients better deals on their health insurance and better care. We will keep you informed when these changes come into effect and how they might benefit your personal insurance. As always, if you have an enquiry or you want more information, send us a question at enquiry@sprattfinancial.co.nz or by phone at (09) 307 8200.

Visit our official website for more information.

Visit the official Southern Cross website.

Notes from the Southern Cross Road Show 2013 (Part One)

Recently one of our team attended the Southern Cross Health Insurance Roadshow. Here is her experience from the event, and what the experts are saying about the current state of Southern Cross, health insurance in New Zealand, the private health care system and several forthcoming changes.

Lars Bojsen-Moller (Chief Operating Officer - Marketing and Distribution) took to the floor first up, a really interesting, knowledgeable man, who has been around the world several times comparing the world's public health and health insurance systems. I have broken down as best as I can his hour long presentation.

·         Southern Cross has 61% of the NZ market share.

·         Grew by only .08% last year.

·         Processing 2000 claims a day at $2.8 million.

·          Southern Cross has had an A+ Claim rate for 9 years in a row.

·         Southern Cross had 12% fewer cancellations last year.

·         They have the biggest Adviser Group and were happy to report that Group Schemes were on the rise.

However, on the negative side:

Unfortunately, NZ Health Insurance overall is in decline and has been for the past 3-4 years. This is a direct result of people’s disposable income being increasingly under pressure and the amount of redundancy increases. Also, confidence in Insurance Companies is at an all time low across the board.

Lack of disposable income among Kiwis is hurting the Health Insurance Industry.

Lars spoke with much passion and at great length about a significant problem we are having with specialists/surgeons overcharging and the perception from members and the public that the more the surgeons/specialists charge, the more it must mean they are “the best”. From the statistics, this is not entirely the case. Private practitioners have made sure they have greater demand than supply and have been able to apply this for a long time, by setting their price structure high, and this is not about to change in the foreseeable future. I guess what this means for Southern Cross and the Health Insurance industry is they are being effectively caught in the middle of paying too much and keeping up with meeting member expectations. This will take a long time to remedy, the surgeons and specialists are happy, very happy actually, and the members don’t care about cost as long as they can claim 100% of their procedure, Southern Cross unfortunately are left paying as necessary for procedures that are boosted in price by surgeons and private health care providers. You can understand Southern Cross’s frustration.

The cost being charged by private surgeons is doing damage to the health insurance business, according to Lars Bojsen-Moller.

A recent survey showed most Aucklanders refused to receive private treatment outside of Auckland. North Shore people refused to even receive treatment over the Harbour Bridge. Auckland is by far the most expensive city in NZ for any private procedure and that’s because quite simply, they just can be. For example:  A knee replacement would cost $17,990 in Marlborough and a whooping $26,029 for the exact same procedure in Auckland. The interesting fact is that if anything was to go wrong in Private Surgery/Hospital you end up in the Public hospital!

A lot of Auckland Private surgeons/specialist aren’t willing to contract with Southern Cross, they are price setting and getting away with it. However Southern Cross has contracts with some affiliated providers and this is when you swipe your card and the specialist involved sorts out your prior approval etc which has been the case for quite sometime and which they are hoping to spread further throughout the health care system. If this goes the way Southern Cross wants it to, they believe it will end up helping the public and make a positive impact on mitigating the stresses involved with health insurance prior approvals.

In the next part: We'll see what other initiatives and changes Southern Cross are looking at implementing, some statistics on claims, and how these changes will affect you as insurance clients.

Visit our official website for more information.

Visit the official Southern Cross website.

Placing Your Southern Cross Health Insurance On Hold While Overseas

From conversing with a lot of our clients, we have found that many of them are unaware that it if you are leaving New Zealand for a protracted period of time (up to 12 months), you do not have to cancel your Southern Cross Health Insurance Policy. You can instead place your policy on hold, to be resumed when you arrive back in the country, saving yourself considerable time and stress in cancelling and reestablishing your health insurance. Also, if you have to cancel your insurance, you will also lose cover for any pre-existing conditions you may have when you are re-insured, giving a good impetus to put your policy on hold rather than cancelling it altogether.

Here is all the information, terms and conditions from the Southern Cross Health Society.

"You can only place your policy on hold if you are travelling overseas,

You must have completed one year's continuous membership since the date you joined Southern Cross or since the end of your last on hold period.

You must place your policy on hold before leaving New Zealand.

You must pay premiums up to the date you leave New Zealand.

You can only place a policy on hold three times per policy lifetime.

Two months is the minimum on hold period for a policy.

12 months is the maximum time a policy may be placed on hold for.

Reinstating your policy.
If you return to New Zealand within two months, your policy will be reinstated from the date it was placed on hold. Premiums will then be due for the time you have been away.

If you return to New Zealand within 12 months, you need to contact us within 30 days of returning to New Zealand. You will need to provide documentation showing your dates of departure and arrival.

If you are away longer than a year, you need to contact us within 30 days of your 12 month on hold period to reinstate your health insurance. You will need to provide documentation showing your date of departure.

Premium payments will start again once your policy has been reinstated.

If you don't make contact you may have to rejoin Southern Cross as a new member. This means any pre-existing conditions won't be covered and your current plan type may not be available."

If you have any further questions about placing your policy on hold or about insurance in general, contact enquiry@sprattfinancial.co.nz for more information.

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Highest health insurance payouts 2012.

"Southern Cross' biggest health insurance payout last year was for a spinal surgery costing $160,000, its latest statistics reveal.

Another spinal surgery cost $151,000 and $100,000 was paid out for a larynx removal.

Cancer, heart disease and spinal conditions were the causes of the highest health insurance claims paid by the association.

All of the patients who made the top 10 highest claims were aged over 64. The oldest was 76.

Chief executive Peter Tynan said it demonstrated the value of insurance. “No one wants to be ill but, if the unexpected happens and you need timely access to treatment, it can be very comforting to have the financial aspect taken care of.”

Those aged under 30 put in a high number of claims for tonsillectomies and dental procedures, for women aged 20-39 endometriosis surgery was common and for people over 50, hip and knee replacements, cataract extraction and skin lesion removals were in high demand.

Tynan said: “If they choose to self-insure, people should have realistic expectations of what they’ll need.”

A survey carried out by Southern Cross last year revealed that 79% of New Zealanders thought they would have to pay for some of their elective healthcare in retirement. But only one in five had started saving and many thought that savings of less than $10,000 would be sufficient."

Original Article Here.

It's always interesting to get a look at figures such as these. Imagine the burden of having to take on those kind of costs by yourself after retirement. The point about self insurance is interesting too, and it plays into a point I have discussed at other times on this blog. New Zealander's sometimes can lack perspective on just how prohibitive illness can be. This is due to a combination of factors, such as inadequate proliferation of the statistics and case studies involved, as well as a strong, independent, yet sometimes wrong headed 'she'll be right' sort of attitude. This attitude has seen Kiwis take on and achieve incredible feats, but it doesn't work so well when applied to your health, your ability to earn and protecting your family or your business from very real risks.

We certainly hope these risks are taken into account and that some of these figures demonstrate that savings of less than $10,000 certainly won't be enough if serious illness rears its ugly head.

Talk to us today about your insurance needs.