Health Funds Feel Better Now
Sun Herald
Sunday May 21, 2000
PRIVATE health insurers are scrambling to keep up with a flood of demand from thirtysomethings rushing to avoid penalties for missing the Lifetime Health Cover deadline of June 30.
Funds are employing extra staff to deal with the number of phone calls and using websites to channel new applications.
The Federal Government introduced Lifetime Health Cover in a bid to encourage Australians to take out private health insurance earlier and maintain it for life.
Early joiners can enter at the rate for existing members, while latecomers will pay a 2 per cent loading for each year they delay joining once over the age of 30.
MBF spokesman David Jones said senior staff were stunned by the wave of membership applications which they likened to the pre-Medicare days when private health insurance was viewed by many as a necessity.
``It's quite astonishing, the impact Lifetime Health Cover has had on new membership applications," Mr Jones said.
``Young people are getting a strong signal that [insurance] is something that you do for your personal health."
Mr Jones said MBF had handled 170,000 calls since the campaign kicked off, averaging 3,500 a day, and call centre staff numbers were five times higher than normal.
HCF business operations general manager Phil Soden said the response in the past few weeks had been amazing, with call centres logging more than 4,000 calls a day.
``We've had thousands more inquiries. We're putting on another 20 people as of Monday in our call centres and we're changing our website page next week," Mr Soden said.
Medibank Private chief operating officer Mike Whelan said interest in the fund's products had surged with a staggering 20,000 inquiries a week.
``I don't think we've seen the biggest increase just yet. Our research indicates some 70pc of people looking to take out private health insurance will wait until June," Mr Whelan said. ``We're saying get in now and try and beat the rush."
© 2000 Sun Herald