Each year on April 1, health insurers review premium rates on existing Hospital and Extras policies to ensure they can continue to cover the rising cost and increase in demand for healthcare.
These costs continue to rise due to an increase in health service costs such as doctors' charges, new equipment and technology being utilised, including prostheses pricing, and medical technology, and an aging population that has resulted in more claims by health fund members.
As a proudly not for profit health fund, HIF does all it can to avoid increasing our premiums any more than necessary.
Our 2023 premium increase is our lowest in the past nine years. Just before Christmas, we also gave back $3 million to eligible members in COVID-19 claims savings as part of our commitment to not profiting from the pandemic.