Finder is an award-winning fintech publication helping people around the world make better financial decisions and improve their lives. They are the most visited personal finance comparison website in Australia, with international offices in the US, Canada, and Singapore.
According to them, the launch of our health and pet extras to the public seems timely.
One of their reports stated that data from a recent nationally representative survey revealed that 6% of Australians cancelled their hospital policy in the last 6 months, while 7% reduced their level of cover.
Meanwhile, for extras, 5% cancelled their plans and 8% reduced their cover. This adds up to the 13% who ditched and downgraded their covers, which is equivalent to 2.6 million people across hospital and extras policies.
Given these circumstances, our approach may allow Aussies to regain their trust and confidence in getting insurance and extras. And that is mainly because of the following key ways how we break from the traditional model of health funds:
- Customers can customise their policies
- Customers do not have to serve waiting periods
- Extras benefits don’t expire every 12 months
At ExtrasJar, customers “invest” in a registered managed investment scheme through their scheduled payments. They will be issued units in return (equivalent to how many units can be purchased with the payment they deposited) to be used anytime to claim for health or pet care treatments.
Here are some of the verdicts of Finder’s experts about ExtrasJar:
“Using an investment fund as a way to grow spare cash that would otherwise be idle is certainly an interesting idea, especially when paired with insurance,” says Kylie Purcell, investments editor.
According to Tim Bennett, health insurance publisher: “The way ExtrasJar operates is in a lot of ways very basic, but the way they’re applying it to health insurance is really interesting. It’s a bit more like you’re nan stuffing cash under the couch for a rainy day rather than the old-school model of insurance, and that’s pretty refreshing.”
“This product is mainly being compared to a traditional private health insurance extras policy, but we need to compare it to the idea of ‘self-insuring’ with your own cash,” says Alison Banney, money editor.
We are thrilled with this feature by Finder as it helps us reach more of our fellow Aussies, especially those who belong in the 13% of those who cancelled or downgraded their covers due to costs. ExtrasJar is here to help and empower them to access quality health and pet care without compromising their hard-earned savings.
Read the full article here.
