Aussie health insurers NIB, Medibank defer premium rise as claims remain subdued (updated)

NIB Holdings

06/02/2023 22:07

(Adds NIB Holdings, detail on premium rise deferral)
       Feb 7 (Reuters) - Australian health insurers Medibank
Private Ltd  MPL.AX  and NIB Holdings  NHF.AX  on Tuesday
postponed their respective health insurance annual premium
increases as claims continue to remain below expected levels.
    The country's biggest health insurer Medibank deferred its
2.96% premium increase by a couple of months to June 1, while
NIB's 2.72% premium rise was pushed to Sept. 1.
    Medibank, which fell victim to a cyber attack in 2022, said
it would return an additional A$59 million ($40.60 million) in
COVID-19 permanent net claims savings to customers.
    "While public health measures implemented during COVID-19
have eased, claims still remain below expected levels which is
why we are continuing to return savings to our customers," said
Milosh Milisavljevic, Medibank's customer portfolios group
executive. 
        NIB in a separate statement said it "will assess the
deferred premium increase before September to determine what's
appropriate given claims experience", adding so far the claims
environment has been "benign".
($1 = 1.4531 Australian dollars)
 (Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by
Shailesh Kuber)
 ((Rishav.Chatterjee@thomsonreuters.com;))