Temperature rises over premiums

Some Southern Cross health insurance customers have questioned the insurer's assertion that its premium rises are "modest".

"Their 'modest' rise is actually a 25 per cent premium rise for me and I haven't claimed for years," one member of the Southern Cross Medical Care Society said.

Another, 89-year-old Iris Nolan, who lives near Kerikeri, said her premium was rising by 94 per cent, to $1092 a year.

The insurer said that premiums would drop or stay the same for 80 per cent of its 800,000 members in the coming year.

On Sunday it said premiums would rise by a "modest" amount for those facing increases, but could not specify the size of the increases or the number of members facing them.

On Monday it said 12 per cent of customers faced rises averaging 3.4 per cent - ranging from 1c to $52 a year. For the remaining 8 per cent it would be "meaningless" to state the average, because there were so many variables.

The reductions are discounts for members' low claims or long membership, the latter being a response to the anger of older members faced with premium increases.

The society had a $43 million surplus last year because of rising premium incomes and lower claims.