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Inflation has boosted the attractiveness of health funds, with both membership and contributions rising dynamically. The new members are active and conscious spenders, most of them young people who spend their money on private medical care, while older members mainly buy medicines, Világgazdaság reports.
In the first half of the year, Hungarian provider Prémium’s Health Fund membership has already grown by the same amount as in the whole of last year. This year, 12 percent more people have paid in, 24 percent more overall than in the base period last year.
More than 90 percent of contributions are individual ones, with the largest share of payments last year, 20 percent of members overall, in the HUF 50,000-100,000 (EUR 130-260) range.
Eight percent of members make annual contributions of over HUF 500,000 (EUR 1,310), and two percent of members spend above the theoretical tax relief limit of HUF 750,000 (EUR 1,960).
Private medical care, dentistry, medicine, optical products and medical aids are the most popular, but the use depends significantly on age. Among those under 40, 40 percent of the money spent goes on private doctors and dentistry, and 25 percent on pharmacy purchases. Among those over 50, spending on medicines becomes dominant, accounting for 45 percent of the expenditure.
The number of members of Hungarian health funds is less than one million, but membership is worthwhile for everyone, especially because the contributions could also be used to cover rising healthcare costs. According to experts, it is not usability that is lacking, but the necessary information to start a dynamic growth in the number of members.
The most popular of the self-help services is the maternity allowance – when a child is born, one million forints of one’s own savings can be withdrawn from the health fund account and used for any purpose without any restrictions.
In response to a query from Világgazdaság, Prémium said that the average assets of its members in the fund account is 85,000 forints (EUR 220), but balances of several million forints are not uncommon either. More than 1,500 members have more than one million forints (EUR 2,620) in the health fund accounts, and the largest saving is close to 6.5 million forints (EUR 17,000).
The number of members could reach 330,000 at the company by the end of the year, an increase of 5 percent this year.
There are several factors behind the explosion in contributions at the Prémium Health Fund. One is the rise in cost consciousness, which is not surprising given the dramatic price increases over the past two years. Moreover, the provider has changed its marketing strategy over the past year and a half, renewing and rejuvenating its image, placing greater emphasis on PR communication and running several high-value media campaigns to encourage deposit and entry, something that is unique in the health fund market.
Their biggest competitive advantage is the so-called “Miracle Card” service, which means that members do not need to top up their health account in advance, but link it to their credit card so that the balance is topped up at the same time as the purchase.
The nearly 50,000 customers who use this card will enjoy almost twice as much tax rebate at the beginning of next year as those who do not.
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