ExtrasJar recently appeared in Bite Magazine as they introduced an innovative alternative for customers currently getting a poor value of money from their current health extras policies. In a two-page feature, the esteemed publication discussed our radical approach of blending the best of banking, insurance, and investments and how it could benefit policyholders.
People who could not make the most of their plan because they are getting a lot less back in benefits versus the premiums they pay is the main problem ExtrasJar saw in current policies.
In fact, one of our co-founders, Reece Frazier, mentioned that out of the hundreds of people he researched, only one got to claim back more from their extras than they paid as cover.
Leading consumer advocacy group CHOICE backs this claim where their September 2022 research found that according to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the average annual extras premium per person was $500, but the average annual benefit is only $390. What does this imply? It means that many people spent more on extras premium than they got back in their health fund.
To address the said problem, ExtrasJar was built so that customers can access quality healthcare, grow their nest egg, and have complete control over their funds. All these benefits are combined in just one account!
As Bite puts it, “the new model promises customers that if they don’t use their extras cover this year, one hundred per cent is rolled over to the following year until it’s needed. Further, the fund doesn’t limit customers to a certain amount under things like dental, physiotherapy, or optical – if customers have enough money in their ‘kitty’ they can pay for treatments in full.”
“So we think having people saving and having access to that money that’s rolled over and is always there—even if conservatively people are going to get 30 per cent more in their pockets now to pay for treatments than they did going through someone else—that’s better for their health and for the whole network of the health system,” Frazier says.
Even from a professional’s point of view, the Australian Dental Association (ADA) also sees extra or ancillary models with dental, physiotherapy, optometry, and some natural therapies as being a poor value of money for their patients with rebates well below the average cost of treatments.
And this is why they advocated for a Health Savings Account (HSA) instead as a better way for people to save for future health needs. For them, to provide a much better value to taxpayers than they are currently getting, an HSA should feature a well-designed set of incentives and is self-financing for dental and health allied care.
“With HSAs, people would be better off putting their money in one of these accounts than paying for increasing PHI premiums, and only paying for dentistry when it’s needed—and reaping the reward of the interest accrued as it sits there. It is a win-win for the consumer,” ADA CEO Damian Mitsch said.
Given this insight, we are glad to see that ExtrasJar’s products are aligned with ADA’s vision of a well-designed policy for customers. It is really our goal to give our fellow Aussies more bang for their buck and empower them to save further as they secure their healthiest future.
We are thankful to Bite for featuring us in their December 2022 issue. This allows us to take a step further in our mission of expanding our footprint and reaching more customers in need.
Read the full write-up here.
Bite magazine is a business magazine for dental professionals.
