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Date Published : Thursday, March 27, 2008
One of Australia's largest health insurance companies has increased premiums and cut benefits as part of a restructuring plan.
Manchester Unity - which has over 194,000 private health care policy holders across the country - has increased hospital admission excess fees from $200 to $250 in a bid to make up for a slow year.
However, the Herald Sun has discovered that the company, which is based in Sydney, will no longer cover obstetric services in private hospitals on certain health plans, except for women who are already pregnant when the change occurs.
The insurance policies affected by the changes are the fund's HealthMate Executive and HealthStart Hospital products.
Manchester Unity chief executive John Brogden defended the changes to the company's health insurance products, telling the publication: "The result of these changes is that all our products represent excellent value."
The newspaper reports that Australian's with private health insurance cover face an average increase in premiums of 4.99 per cent during 2008, above the official inflation figure from the Reserve Bank of Australia of four per cent.
As a result of the decision by Manchester Unity, federal health minister Nicola Roxan has advised private health insurance customers to shop around and look closely at all the products available before committing to one in particular.
"There are a lot of services out there - and every person will want something different,'' Ms Roxon said.
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