Did you know that same-sex couples can join HIF on a joint health insurance policy? Turns out, this is still a point of confusion for some; so we caught up with the team from Everyday Health TV to explain more. HIF is proud to be an LGBTQIA-friendly health fund, and the first private health insurer to add our brand voice to the Australian Marriage Equality campaign.
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Transcript
Tiffany Cherry: Australia is a diverse country with lots of different types of families. So if you are in a same-sex relationship, how does that affect your eligibility for joint health cover? Well Anne Humphrey, an Executive Manager at HIF joins us once again to tell us how.
Anne Humphrey: Well Tiff, same-sex couples can access joint cover, in fact at HIF we’ve been covering same-sex couples for decades.
Tiffany Cherry: And you’ve been educating the public on how to do this?
Anne Humphrey: Indeed, because we’ve found there’s a lot of confusion out there and a lot of people in that community don’t realise that they can access the cover.
Tiffany Cherry: So how are you Anne, educating people on this issue?
Anne Humphrey: We’re using social media to target people in these communities. We’re using same-sex imagery in our campaigns and we’re supporting the Australian Marriage Equality Campaign.
Casey Beros: And Anne, I assume that the cover is exactly the same as it is for heterosexual couples and families given that their needs are the same?
Anne Humphrey: Absolutely. We see same-sex couples the same as heterosexual couples and they’re claiming for the same sorts of things. They’re claiming for dental, they’re claiming for any hospital treatments that they need and in some cases they’re even claiming for maternity.
Sam Wood: And you mentioned the campaign that you’ve really strongly got behind. What’s the response been to that?
Anne Humphrey: The response has been overwhelming. We’ve been really proud to be supporting this and because we have a lot of members that are in same-sex relationships and we really want to support their right to be able to marry.
Sam Wood: That’s fantastic.
Anne Humphrey: So the response has been overwhelming.
Sam Wood: Good!
Anne Humphrey: But we have had our detractors, but we’re standing firm because we think it’s a really important issue.
Tiffany Cherry: You’re always going to get that.
Sam Wood: Exactly.
Tiffany Cherry: If you’re interested in finding out more, where would you go?
Anne Humphrey: Visit hif.com.au and you’ll find all you need to know about health cover for same-sex relationships.
Tiffany Cherry: I think you really should be applauded for leading the way in this very important topic.
Anne Humphrey: Thank you.