Membership spurt boosts fund to big surplus

THE Health Insurance Fund of WA has announced a 49 per cent total membership growth and an 80 per cent growth in members with hospital tables, the largest growth it has ever experienced.

HIF general manager Stephen Brown said reported a net surplus of $800,000 after increasing benefit payments on behalf of members by 4.7 per cent during the financial year.

“The surplus that resulted from the last financial year is currently invested to build up sufficient reserves to pay the future claims of our new and existing managers,” Mr Brown said.

Despite its recent growth, the fund has more than 17,500 members and a long way to go to equal its big WA competitor HBF which has 700,000 members ans is the largest in the State.