We are with Medibank and our premium rises by 4.5%. At the same time the following natural therapy services will no longer be on our extras cover from 1 April 2019
Alexander Technique, Aromatherapy, Bowen Therapy, Feldenkrais, Western Herbalism, Homeopathy, Shiatsu, Reflexology, Kinesiology and Naturopathy
While we haven’t ever used these services, I expected that we would have paid extra to have these as part of the extra cover suite of services.
I wonder how much the premium increase would have been if these services were not removed. My cynical self suspects that it would have been the same.
That is a $620 p.a. higher than my HCI ‘Gold with extras’ for 2019. Grandfathered or not you might be well served to shop around, not withstanding some ‘grandfather’ policies provide less not more cover than the newer ones which is one reason those funds might be happy to keep customers signed up to them. Sometimes they are also a much of a muchness compared to a newer one, but worth a suspicious look with a cynical eye…
Good old Medibank Private are also trying it on. I pay my premium annually, and have set things up so that the insurance runs from 1 April each year to 31 March, ie the date that health premiums rise. As I pay a few days before expiry, I’m able to beat the annual price rise.
MBP emailed me last month to say that my premium would rise from 1/4/19 from $4618.80 to $4849.80. Not happy, but OK.
Today I received my annual premium demand, which they say is due by 31 March. Do you think the supposed amount due is the lower figure? Of course not! There’s a big red PAY NOW button on the email message. If I’d clicked that without checking I’d have paid at next year’s rate and have been an extra $231 out of pocket.
An administrative error? Definitely not. Exactly the same thing happened to me last year, and I had to phone them to make sure I could pay the pre- price rise amount and get the full 12 months’ cover.
This seems to be MBP’s way of slipping the price rises in to unsuspecting customers ahead of time.
I have separate hospital cover (Peoplecare) and extras cover (HCI). Today I have asked Peoplecare to explain their 11.7% increase to my premium and HCI to explain their 9.7% increase to my premium, when CHOICE’s article states the average premium increase is 3.25%.
I will let you know their responses when I receive them.
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