Bupa delivers lowest increase of the large insurers

Bupa has also made moves to quickly adopt government reforms, including age-based discounting which will deliver a discount of up to 10 per cent for adults aged under 30. This brings the actual average increase to 2.78 per cent for all Bupa customers.

Dr Dwayne Crombie, Managing Director of Bupa Health Insurance, said the lower rate was recognition of affordability and cost of living challenges facing Australian families.

“The increase in healthcare costs hasn’t gone away, but it’s not good enough to expect customers alone to keep absorbing these costs,” Dr Crombie said.

“This lower increase means we will share some of that cost with our members, but we also continue the push for broader reform of the health system as every component has a role to play in keeping healthcare affordable for Australians.

“The introduction of age-based discounting aims to encourage broad participation across all ages, not just older or less healthy people. Any measure that makes health insurance more affordable for all Australians is important.

“While we have the lowest operating costs of any of the big funds, the amount we paid in claims last year increased 4.7 per cent which equates to $139m. This means more of our members are getting benefit from their coverage. It also reflects the rising cost of continuing to provide world class healthcare.

“We remain committed to delivering value to our customers with initiatives such as our Members First Platinum dental network to provide no out of pocket costs on a range of common preventative dental services.

“We will also expand our no excess cover for children in hospital (effective 1 July 2019), further adding value for families to our gap free offers for dental, optical, podiatry, chiropractic and physiotherapy treatments for children,” Dr Crombie said.

The premium change will take effect from 1 April 2019. For more information please view our FAQs.