The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has released statistics showing the impact of the private health insurance risk equalisation pool for the last financial year.
The pool is a key component of the community rating policy under which private health insurance premiums are not set based on individual risk factors.
The pool seeks to standardise the risk of each private health insurer's membership. Insurers with younger membership profiles tend to make payments to the pool. Those with older and higher claiming memberships will accept payments from the pool.
nib was the highest contributor to the risk equalisation pool last financial year, making a payment of $196 million. Other significant contributors were Health.com.au ($42 million), CBHS ($40 million), Defence Health ($32 million), GU Health ($31 million) and GMHBA ($29 million).
Bupa was the significant recipient from the pool, receiving $162 million, followed by HBF ($112 million), Australian Unity ($60 million) and Medibank ($39 million).