Peer cover a hard sell but new product planned
The founder of crowdfunded insurance provider Peercover is branching out into health cover.
Friday, February 12th 2016, 6:00AM
by Susan Edmunds
Peercover allows groups of people to pool money in a fund that is then used to cover the excess on each other’s insurance claims.
It was designed to work on the basis that people who knew they would get help paying an excess might be more comfortable taking the risk of a policy with a cheaper premium and higher excess in the event of a claim.
The proposal had limited success – founder Chris Logan said it was a complicated product to sell.
Now he has founded Halerhealth.co.nz as a form of direct health cover sold on behalf of dentists.
“It’s cutting out the middle man and is more of an aggregation model,” he said. “We get dentists to agree to a package of dental services such as a clean and check-up and a discount on a filling and they give a price. We put that on the website so people can buy that and pay it off weekly, monthly or yearly.”
He said it was designed to keep prices competitive and people would be sent reminder emails to ensure they maximised their entitlements.
It would provide a way for consumers to manage their health costs, he said. “Dental care is seen as being expensive and not a lot of people are getting health insurance.”
He said the focus would be on preventative dental care. “You don’t have to pay for someone else’s fillings, which is the standard insurance model.”
For dentists, it offered a way to get patients in more often and regular income. It would contract out the credit risk of payment plans.
Plan terms are for one year. After a year has passed, and if the plan is still available, the benefits reset. Plan benefits expire after one year if they are not used. The plan is dentist-specific.
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