NRMA enters health insurance market
NRMA is to enter the New South Wales and ACT health insurance markets next month in a bid to tap a slice of its loyal four million-plus customer base.
NRMA is to enter the New South Wales and ACT health insurance markets next month in a bid to tap a slice of its loyal four million-plus customer base.
NRMA already competes in the South Australian and West Australian health insurance markets under its wholly owned SGIC and SGIO brands, respectively.
It now aims to sign up to 800,000 of its existing car and/or home insurance policyholders over the next four years, NRMA Health Insurance, says general manager Ian Stone.
"We would hope to have about 20 per cent of our customer base (signed up)... say, three or four years out," Stone says.
NRMA Health Insurance is offering free accidental death cover to the first 3,000 customers and will waive the normal two month waiting period for all new members who join before June 30.
Its basic product, Hospital Value, starts at $10.25 per week for singles, after the federal govern-ment's 30 per cent rebate is taken into account.
Stone, who held the same position at SGIC and will remain based in South Australia, says NRMA has timed its entry into Australia's biggest health insurance market to take advantage of the government's July 1 deadline, after which Lifetime Health Cover applies.
"Basically we hope that people will want to join NRMA Health and therefore (we decided) to give them the opportunity to join us before 1 July, so that they don't pay higher premiums based on their age when Lifetime Health Cover comes in," he said.
Stone says the SGIO and SGIC acquisitions allowed NRMA to enter the health insurance mar-ket. SGIC has been active in SA since 1987 and currently enjoys a 13 per cent market share there.
"(We want) to leverage off that expertise and get some of the value that we paid (for those as-sets)," he says.
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