Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Liz Koh: Enriched Retirement Founder on health insurance in New Zealand, if employers should pay for it

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Liz Koh: Enriched Retirement Founder on health insurance in New Zealand, if employers should pay for it · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So should your employer give you health insurance? We've got
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: calls for a fringe benefit tax break to help New
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Zealanders pay for the rising cost of health insurance. And
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this came from a study from the Financial Services Council
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: which found we are twice as likely to ensure our
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: cars than we are ourselves in our health. They reckon
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: only one in four key weis get their health insurance
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: paid for by their employer, with seventy eight percent of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: insurance people paying for it out of their own pocket.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: And I know it hurts. Let us go as the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: founder of Enriched Retirement and joins you. Now, Hello, Liz,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: good morning. So should employers be paying your health insurance?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Or is the whole point of a public health system
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to be our health insurance?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Look, I think our public health system is under extreme
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: and pressure, as we all know, you know, with staff shortages,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: long waiting lists, you know, the days of relying on
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: that public health system are gone. I think, so we
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: have to take care of ourselves. And I think one
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: of the problems here is that New Zealanders think that
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: a bullet proof, you know, they think, oh, she'll be right,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: nothing's going to go wrong with me. And they don't
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: tend to put health insurance at the top of their
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: priority list. But it's getting that way because your health
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: is really important. You know, if you don't have good health,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: then you can't enjoy life. But it may also impact
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: on your ability to work. And that's where I think
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: employers have a vested interest in making sure that their
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: employees are healthy, and part of that is encouraging them
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: to take out health insurance. So I think, yes, you know,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: having fringe benefit tax apply to those you know, health
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: work related health insurance schemes is a disincentive. It's not
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: heaving us in the right direction if we continue along
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: those lines. So by all means, I think a tax
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: break on that would be extremely helpful to you know,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: to encourage us to to take the right steps.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I don't think we don't invest in health insurance because
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: we think we bulletproof. We don't invest in health insurance
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: because it's so damn expensive.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Well, yes, look, but then how do you measure expensive?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: To me, it's about what's the benefit that you're getting
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: in relation to that expense. So and I think particularly
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: for people who have got, you know, some known health
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: issues or who have some genetics or family history or
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: even history in terms of you know, being heavily involved
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: in sports and that kind of thing which might impact
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: their health. You know, those people are at high risk,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: and I think in that situation where you're facing a
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: high risk, then it makes a lot of good sense
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: to have health insurance because you know there's there's something
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: going to happen to you potentially down the track which
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: is going to cost you a lot of money or
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of discomfort because you can't get into the
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: public health system. So in that sense, it's not expensive.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Liz, I thank you so much for getting up early today.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: This goes from a rich retirement. For more from Early
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.