Risk-aware Cantabrians in drive for health insurance

MEDICAL COVERED: Southern Cross Health Society's chief executive, Peter Tynan, says the society is experiencing good growth in Christchurch's health insurance market.

Southern Cross Health Society says while the rest of New Zealand's health insurance market is "reasonably flat", good growth is occurring in Christchurch.

The organisation has leased new permanent premises in a low-rise building in Harewood for its Canterbury health insurance sales and support staff, who had requested they move to a low-rise rather than high-rise building.

After the organisation's Oxford Terrace office closed because of February 22's earthquake, staff worked from temporary offices provided by NZ Post subsidiary Reachmedia in Hornby for nine months while the new Harewood premises were being built.

Southern Cross Health Society chief executive Peter Tynan said Christchurch was a growth centre for the health insurer. "In a strange quirk, we are finding Christchurch is currently the only part of New Zealand where we've got good growth."So it's a growth centre for us at the moment, and we're delighted with that.

"The rest of the country is reasonably flat, and we're finding growth in Christchurch which is quite refreshing."

Part of the reason for the growth was the fact that Cantabrians were more aware of the risks they faced and were making sure they had the right amount of insurance cover.

"I think insurance has become a topic they want to talk about, and employers are doing that as well as employees," Tynan said.

Employers seeking to keep staff and attract people to the region also wanted any additional benefits they could offer staff, beyond salary, and health insurance was one such benefit, he said.

More than 50 per cent of its business came through employers who offered health insurance or subsidised insurance to their employees.

If growth in Canterbury continued at its current pace, the health insurer would consider adding more staff to its team of 13 in Harewood.

Not many options existed when deciding on its new premises, Tynan said. Proximity to clients was important but it had also wanted a low-rise development within a certain time period. "There wasn't a lot of choice.

"One of the requirements – in terms of feedback we got from the staff – was they preferred low-rise to high-rise."

"There is uncertainty as to to where all the business people will be centred, but this is quite close between the centre of the city itself and Hornby where still quite a lot of our clients are, and a lot of them are moving out towards Harewood anyway," Tynan said.

Tynan declined to give specifics of the terms of the lease at the new premises, but said it was a "reasonably long-term commitment" for several years.

Southern Cross has about 50,000 members in Christchurch.

Southern Cross Health Society is part of the Southern Cross Healthcare Group, which includes the Southern Cross Health Trust, the owner of Southern Cross Hospitals, Southern Cross Travel Insurance and Southern Cross Primary Care.

- © Fairfax NZ News