The Government has made public today a decision to reform the private health insurance industry further by moving to ensure all health funds now offer corporate products to the general public.
Following a review of corporate health insurance products the Government will amend legislation to ensure that members of the public will be able to purchase corporate insurance products previously only available to company employees.
Managing Director of Medibank Private, Australia's largest health fund, Mr George Savvides, responded to the Government's decision by saying the fund would work hard to ensure both current and potential members got the best value from the changes.
"We understand and support the principles behind this decision," he said.
Medibank Private introduced health cover tailor made to meet the needs of the corporate sector in 2005, the product is called Priority. Priority offers health cover and a well-being program for employees, along with measurement and intervention tools for employers to track and improve their employees' health.
"We've had great success with Priority in the corporate sector to date. We've grown membership and subsequently increased awareness of, and investment in, the health and wellbeing of staff by employees," Mr Savvides said.
"The good news for our corporate members is that the changes will not affect their access to the health and wellbeing programs and productivity tools available to them with our Priority health cover which, has always been the point of difference for corporate clients.
"The fact remains though that people have to choose the most appropriate level of cover for their life stage and life style," he said.
In addition to these changes, the Government will increase open disclosure requirements for health insurance brokers and intermediaries along with introducing regulation comparable to the financial services sector.
"We welcome these changes around open disclosure and the introduction of a code of conduct for health insurance brokers - this is good news for consumers," said Mr Savvides.
The changes are not expected to come into effect until 2008.
ENDS
For further information please contact: Libby Woolnough - 0411 659 060