Generation Y to Get Web 2.0 Prepaid Health Insurance via PayPal

Health funds worldwide need to attract younger members in order to help keep their health insurance premiums affordable. Prepaid Health Insurance via PayPal may be part of the solution according to GMHBA, an Australian not-for-profit health fund.

"The new site is promising to help young people cut through the clutter by providing hospital and extras health insurance cover online for just $9.90 a week via PayPal. It features numerous Web 2.0 style innovations that should resonate with the attention poor video centric Generation Y. The site is also carbon offset. Visitors will discover virtual avatars, Skype, Twitter, health Widgets and live video. An Apple iPhone can also be won to highlight the fact the site is also iPhone friendly" said Jonathan Crabtree, Online Manager, Strategy & Innovation for GMHBA Health Insurance.

"Importantly, we're looking for feedback and will continue to innovate to ensure the service we can offer is helpful and efficient. A paging service is available 24/7 for those people wanting to ask a question or two before they buy online. In any event, our prepaid health insurance is backed by a 60 day money back value guarantee. If people find better value elsewhere within 60 days and haven't made a claim, they can cancel their policy and we'll give them their money back," Mr Crabtree said.

"The hospital and extras package costs so little because you'd be a private patient in a public hospital with a $500 maximum annual excess and this cover does NOT pay benefits for: eye surgery, gastric banding, joint replacement, renal dialysis, obstetrics and IVF and related services," Mr Crabtree said.

Layoffs Equate to Loss of Health Insurance

Losing a job is tough. If you are lucky, you will get a severance package that includes some pay and health insurance. But, what happens when that runs out? COBRA, the health insurance option offered to people who lose their health benefits, is expensive. And, it’s hard to make those payments when you’re on unemployment.

Lynn Brumby knows this first hand. She always had health insurance. “From the day I was born, until I was 53, I had insurance,“ said Brumby. That is, until she lost her job as a marketing counselor at Appalachian Christian Village.

“I knew i needed it because I had just been diagnosed with diabetes,“ said Brumby. She got the paperwork for COBRA, but realized she could not afford it, or expensive visits to the emergency room, on unemployment.

“I was at my wits end, I didn’t know what to do, I thought what am I going to do, I’m sick, where am I going to go,“ said Brumby. As unemployment rates continue to rise, the number of people in Brumby’s shoes grows larger.

“With the loss of insurance, a lot of people are not sure where to turn to for their health care,“ said Susan Reed, the Clinic Director at the Johnson City Downtown Clinic. In Johnson City, many of them are turning to the Downtown Clinic.

“I think they saved my life,“ said Brumby. “No one is denied care because of inability to pay, no one is turned away because of finances,“ said Reed. “We have seen an increase in the recently laid off, recently lost their jobs, which equates to I’ve recently lost my insurance,“ said Reed.

The clinic recently got $161,000 in federal stimulus money. Specifically, the money will be used to educate people who have recently lost their jobs about what the clinic can do to help them. “That’s going to enable us to maintain our level of staffing, it’s going to enable us to increase the amount of services that we’re providing,“ said Reed. To find out more click play above.