Australian Unity has worked closely with the federal government and our industry association Private Healthcare Australia to address the status of Benefit Limitation Periods (BLPs)* in private health insurance policies.

Australian Unity has always operated in a transparent way with regard to BLPs on the understanding they complied with the private health insurance legislation and were in the interests of consumers as they allowed for lower premiums to be charged for those products where BLPs applied.  Each year Australian Unity submits all of its product details, including those containing BLPs, to the Department of Health as part of the annual premium approval process, which has been overseen by different governments in the 11 years since the advent of the new Act in 2007.

On March 9 this year, when the Department of Health raised its concerns, we moved quickly on behalf of our members and customers to waive BLPs in all policies.

Less than one per cent (0.63 per cent) of our policyholders were serving a BLP at that time. More than 99 per cent of our policyholders did not have or were not serving a BLP. As at today, there are no Australian Unity policies with BLPs operating—well ahead of the government’s announced target of June 2018.

Our key priority is to ensure our members and customers understand and value their private health cover benefits and entitlements.

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* From Department of Health website as at 9 March 2018:
“A benefit limitation period is where you are only entitled to restricted benefits for a particular condition or treatment”

Further information:

Stephen Lunn, Head of Government Relations & Advocacy,

slunn@australianunity.com.au

0401 704 352