Here we are heading into 2026, and with medical insurance, the one constant over the last 10 years has been said, reported in the news, and generally complained about: the increasing costs of medical insurance. The last 12 to 18 months have seen the largest premium increases in 30 years!

As an advice business, we need to adapt to a significantly more challenging market. Here's how we are responding.

With this update, this will be the last one of these in this series with this structure. The combination of premium increases and subtle changes in the product structure choices being made as a result means future comparisons need to be tweaked enough to be different.

I have been discussing managing medical premiums for quite some time. This article I wrote in 2016 is the start where I discuss the life cycle of medical insurance for the typical household. This discussion and approach is still quite valid.

However, with Covid, challenges with the public medical system and cost-of-living pressures, medical insurance remains an essential tool to ensure you have access to the medical care you need, but it's a whole lot more expensive than it used to be.

For a long time, I have discussed the need for unfunded medicine coverage. Ideally, this coverage is baked into your medical policy, but that's not always the case.

In the middle of last year, I wrote this piece for GoodReturns highlighting a significant issue in the way unfunded medicines claims are handled by most insurers.

As I said in the article, this isn't about demanding a change to policy wordings. While it would be nice, we are also talking about an area of claims that is very expensive for insurers.

This is an update to a similar article I wrote in 2016, and this shows in the seven years since, medical insurance premiums have mostly doubled and what has changed since then. Added to that is access to public health services is at an all-time low, with around 2/3 of people not being seen in required Ministry of Health time frames.

Don't take my word for it; you can check out Public Health services delivery response that is linked, though this hasn't been updated since before the 2023 election. Click time series view, and it will show you how well current public health delivery is achieving to expectations.

Have you had an injury or medical event, and you have found you haven't been treated as quickly as you expected, with the result you are now living with some level of permanent impairment?

Over the years, this situation has arisen regularly, prompting some interesting responses from our medical and health systems.

With increased awareness and understanding of scams and data breaches, people are increasingly concerned about protecting their data. 

We've seen an increasing number of people, some well-educated and working in financial services, being taken for large amounts of cash through unwitting scams or just plain fraud.

If the people who should know better are getting taken in on these things, what chance do you have?

Often said in business 'You need to get out there and network!' The problem with this statement is it is not that helpful for those who haven't done it before. 

In a recessionary market, the way forward is to get out there and market, not retrench and pull back. "When in Hell, don't stop! Keep going." often attributed to Winston Churchill 

Yes, you may have been to a conference or two, but if you haven't been in a sales or relationship role previously, networking can be daunting, especially when you're trying to get your new venture off the ground. 

Great idea, product or service. You're busy getting going, so adding more to the load isn't easy to contemplate. Even if you've been in business for a while, you need new or more contacts, but you're not sure how or where to spend your time.

Breast cancer is a consistent news story we all see, in more recent times we've seen the challenges people face with their insurance company's getting breast reconstructions done.

This 2016 article in the New Zealand Herald, 11th Hour Shock, for Anna Jobsz who is having a preventative mastectomy and breast reconstruction is pretty typical of what we see.

This follows on from the high profile treatment Angelina Jolie had when she found out she was exposed to a high chance of developing breast cancer.

 We hear regularly about the challenges of Dunedin student flats, expecially for those students about to start the year and are flat hunting.

If you're renting, you need to have some level of contents cover. Ideally, it is enough to replace your possessions but, more importantly, cover damage you may be liable for.

Where do I start with this? There are so many things wrong that it's not easy to pick on one thing.

Having been involved with life, disability, and medical insurance for over two decades I've seen a thing or two.

Just to quantify what I'm talking about before I launch into a ranting tirade about our medical system from some middle aged stale pale male, let's have a look at what I have seen more recently.