Bupa pledges to pass $800 million in Covid-19 savings to customers with cashback scheme

Insurers, including Bupa, have said they will compensate customers for the fact that operations and additional services carried out due to Covid-19 have been significantly reduced.

Bupa plans to hand out cash to its 1.7 million eligible members just before the insurance giant raises premiums by about 3.18% on November 1st.

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On Monday, Bupa announced that it would be giving out another $160 million to its customers, on top of the $155 million in cash back it promised in June.

Since the pandemic began, insurers have pledged a total of about $800 million in financial assistance for their customers.

Eligible customers receive payments between $35 and $314, depending on policy.

Cashback is available to all Australian resident policyholders who have had private Bupa medical insurance for a minimum of three months from 1 July 2021 to 30 June this year.

Ambulance-only policyholders, international visitors, and students with hospital insurance are excluded.

Chris Carroll, managing director of Bupa Health Insurance, said Bupa “respects its pledge” to customers that it will not benefit financially from Covid-19.

“We know many Australians are struggling because of rising inflation and pressure on their cost of living,” he said.

Insurance companies have promised not to profit from Covid-19, yet they are one of the only parts of Australia’s healthcare system to benefit from the pandemic.

They cut benefits by about $1 billion and gained hundreds of thousands of members as people signed up to skip the long lines for surgeries and other procedures at public hospitals.

Since the pandemic began in 2020, insurers have passed some of their profits on to their customers through cashback payments, delayed premium increases, and helping those experiencing financial hardship. rice field.

Bupa has postponed the 2022 premium hike from April to November 1st. It claims that this means it can pass on an additional $146 million in Covid-related savings.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said it is closely monitoring insurers to ensure that all Covid-19 profits are returned as promised.

In December last year, ACCC Vice-Chairman delie Rickard said, “Insurers expect to return all profits derived from proceedings that have not been implemented and will not be implemented at a later time.

“This could be especially true for extra treatments and geographic areas that have been subject to extended lockdowns.”

Last June, nearly 14 million Australians, or about 54.3% of the population, had some form of private health insurance, up 1.4% from June 2020.

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