Community investment: HIF

Health Insurance Fund of Australia (HIF) is a not-for-profit health insurance fund that works to deliver better health outcomes for its members across health, pet and travel services. HIF holds the title of Australia’s first carbon-neutral health fund.

Choice, access and value are embedded in HIF’s philosophy and set it apart from traditional profit-run health funds. As a not-for-profit, HIF can return surpluses to customers through lower premiums and increased rebates, reflecting its member-owned status.

HIF believes that surpluses should also be invested to improve future life outcomes and looks to expand support of different treatment offerings, particularly prevention and alternative therapies. Prevention is typically underfunded and ignored by other private insurers which are pressured to control costs, potentially undercutting members' future quality of life.

HIF invests in emerging therapies including medicinal cannabis, clinical trial drugs for PTSD, eating disorder treatments and treatment for general mental ill-health emerging post-COVID. HIF has also contributed $250,000 towards the research and development of sleep treatments, recognising that sleep plays a prominent role in physical and mental health.

HIF’s extensive community contributions also include:

• Donations worth nearly $700,000 for St John Ambulance, Australian Medical Association, Little Green Pharma, The Perth Wildcats and more.
• $6.2 million of in-kind contributions, comprised of deferred premium increases, policy suspensions and mental health navigators.
• Waalitj hub traineeships provided to support job pathways through HIF internships.
• Social welfare, which includes donations, paid volunteer and community service leave for employees and paid internships
• Investment in education, through a partnership with Little Green Pharma in a world-first quality of life research study to build the credibility of cannabis treatments.

Left photo by Michael Farnell, Sports Imagery, right photo provided by HIF

Partnership with Australian Medical Association

HIF has partnered with the Australian Medical Association, WA’s peak medical body, to supply RATs to members at a fair price as COVID-19 persists. It is a first of its kind, national partnership that will provide better accessibility to its members through more avenues.