1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,280
Speaker 1: Bright and bread.

2
00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:05,960
Speaker 2: Kiwis we are quick to ensure our belongings, but less

3
00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:09,280
Speaker 2: keen to ensure ourselves. A new report from the Financial

4
00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:12,440
Speaker 2: Services Council shows that we're twice as likely to have

5
00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:15,880
Speaker 2: insurance protection for our car than we are for our

6
00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:19,919
Speaker 2: health or life. They say small changes to FBT to

7
00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:23,439
Speaker 2: fringe Benefit tax could increase the number of employees with

8
00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:27,200
Speaker 2: medical insurance covered and that would be good for productivity,

9
00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,080
Speaker 2: that would be better for New Zealand. Kirk Hope is

10
00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:32,800
Speaker 2: the Chief Executive of the Financial Services Council and is

11
00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:33,479
Speaker 2: with me tonight.

12
00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:36,519
Speaker 1: Hey Kirk, hey, right, hey you do yeah, good, thank you.

13
00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,839
Speaker 1: Good to have you on the show. How many people

14
00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:43,800
Speaker 1: have health insurance in New Zealand?

15
00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:47,320
Speaker 3: So about thirty percent of the population has health insurance.

16
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:53,040
Speaker 3: So again, so if you look at comparable OECD countries

17
00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:56,880
Speaker 3: like Australia, it's about fifty percent in Australia. So we

18
00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:01,040
Speaker 3: are pretty under insured in terms of in health insurance.

19
00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:04,880
Speaker 1: I suppose it's different from compared to ensuring your car

20
00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:07,479
Speaker 1: or whatever. We do have a public health system, right,

21
00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:09,959
Speaker 1: so that presumably people are relying on that.

22
00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think possibly over relying on it as well,

23
00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,880
Speaker 3: because Again, the idea you know, that we've pushed out

24
00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:22,360
Speaker 3: there today is that if you enable more people to

25
00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:26,000
Speaker 3: access private health insurance by making it cheaper, and that's

26
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,959
Speaker 3: by removing fringe benefit tax on it, which is a

27
00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,399
Speaker 3: tax on an employer who is providing health insurance to

28
00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:38,600
Speaker 3: their employee of fifty percent. So it's not inconsequential, right,

29
00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:44,080
Speaker 3: It's quite different in New Zealand compared to say Australia,

30
00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:46,959
Speaker 3: where if you as a person, as an individual you

31
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,040
Speaker 3: don't have health insurance, you by the age of thirty

32
00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:54,760
Speaker 3: get taxed more. So we create a disincentive for employers

33
00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,720
Speaker 3: to provide it, whereas places like Australia they say, actually

34
00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:02,920
Speaker 3: personally we're going to provide a distance interview, not to

35
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,360
Speaker 3: have it. So there are some opportunities here to kind

36
00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,080
Speaker 3: of do things a little bit differently. I think, what

37
00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:09,440
Speaker 3: is that.

38
00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,520
Speaker 1: Have you obviously got some ideas, You've got this report,

39
00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:14,519
Speaker 1: have you taken it to the government. What are they

40
00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:15,360
Speaker 1: telling you?

41
00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,720
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess the key thing for any government

42
00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:21,720
Speaker 3: is what is it going to cost us? Right, So

43
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,720
Speaker 3: we're working through that with the government. At the moment.

44
00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 3: We have a view that actually the overall economic benefits

45
00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:33,040
Speaker 3: would be a lot more than the fiscal cost and

46
00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:37,399
Speaker 3: particularly over time. The other thing that I think enabling

47
00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:43,280
Speaker 3: more employer provided schemes what it would do is enable

48
00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:47,399
Speaker 3: kind of lower income workers to access private health insurance.

49
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,520
Speaker 3: And that's probably one of the biggest things because if

50
00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:53,920
Speaker 3: you talk to people who have had it in the

51
00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:55,639
Speaker 3: impact on your families when they can get back to

52
00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:57,280
Speaker 3: it and they can get an operation that is an

53
00:02:57,280 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 3: elective peace of elective surgery might not be covered by

54
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,880
Speaker 3: acc you might not be able to access the public

55
00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,560
Speaker 3: health system in a timely fashion. Whatever, you've got some

56
00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,960
Speaker 3: form of private health insurance. And as to get back

57
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,120
Speaker 3: into the workplace, the biggest thing is impact understantly. So

58
00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,520
Speaker 3: those things are I think critically we genuinely had to

59
00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,480
Speaker 3: think about this in a different way and other countries

60
00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:23,600
Speaker 3: that have done it it is making a big difference.

61
00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:25,840
Speaker 3: As I said, in Australia, fifty percent of people have

62
00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:28,520
Speaker 3: private health insurance and it means that they can get

63
00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:29,960
Speaker 3: back into the workplace pretty quickly.

64
00:03:30,639 --> 00:03:33,240
Speaker 1: Kirk, interesting stuff. Appreciate your time tonight, Kirk hop Financial

65
00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:37,320
Speaker 1: Services Council Chief Executive. For more from Heather Duplessy Alan

66
00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:39,280
Speaker 1: Drive Listen live to news talks.

67
00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,480
Speaker 2: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

68
00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:43,600
Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio