As an NIB customer, I have to say I have a lot of respect for the company. About 10-15 years ago, I went through all the health insurance offerings available. This included ancillaries cover as I seem to need a lot of dental work :-(, plus had to visit osteopaths, etc. NIB offered a policy that paid 85% of the actual cost, rather than some scheduled fee arrangement. And the premium was comparable to others.
Add to that the fact that the call centre is in Australia, and they have always been very helpful. Even to the point of advising to pay the premium 13 months in advance which will lock in this year's premium for two years.
Now if they can do this and still make a profit, that indicates a very efficient operation imho.
I note that Macquarie has just reviewed listed health insurers, which appear to be NHF and MPL. While it is not a rousing "jump on board" recommendation, neither does it downgrade NHF.
Outlook Looking forward, MPL and NHF are likely to continue to outperform industry trends on both claims and margins. Our preference is NHF (Neutral) over MPL (Neutral) given current company specific dynamics. Following the material share price depreciation on 26 Oct ’22 when MPL resumed trading (suspended due to the cybercrime incident), our TSR is ~25% however we are cautious on the uncertainty around the cybercrime investigation and retain our Neutral recommendation.
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