$8000 annually for pair's health policy

Peter Tynan. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Older Southern Cross Health Society members who are married are paying $8000 and more annually in premiums.

Colin Law said he and his wife were not on UltraCare, the society's most expensive package, yet he was paying $8233 and dreaded the policy premium review in three months.

His comments follow others from clients aged 65-plus including Rev Dr Terry Creagh, criticising the society's premiums which they said were extremely high at a time of life when they needed their policies most but could afford them least.

Southern Cross says older people claim more in fees. People in the 75-79 age brackets were the highest claimants followed by 70-74, 65-69 then 80+ and the top UltraCare package costs $11,058 annually for 65+.

Creagh is paying more than $500 a year for he and his wife.

Peter Tynan, society chief executive, said the New Zealand insurance model was that premiums directly reflected the costs of healthcare used by a policy holder's age group.

"For every older member that doesn't claim, our data shows many others get exceptional value for their premium dollar," Tynan said.

The Laws have SuperCare, a full-cover package with some limits and from May 1 last year the rate was $686.14 a month.

"We meet all the preferences for eating fruit and vegetables, being non-smokers forever and very minimal alcohol. We're dreading the next one that will come in a few weeks. They reassess every year in accordance with costs incurred by the over 65 group for the previous year," said Law, adding that he had downgraded from UltraCare at $921 a month.

"When we joined Southern Cross - I think about 30 years ago - we understood that we were paying relatively high premiums because we were subsidising the sicker and older members. In recent years Southern Cross presumably had trouble recruiting new younger members so they created banding so that instead of the younger subsidising the over 65s, the over 65s were grouped together and have to subsidise their own group."

But Tynan defended that scheme.

"Southern Cross can't control the number of procedures members need nor stop justifiable medical cost escalation. What we can work on is unreasonable price increases. We have made this the number one priority through initiatives such as the affiliated provider programme where we contract agreed prices with providers."

He said health expenditure had doubled in the past decade, adding: "It's particularly clear that the ageing population are feeling the pressures."