Gippsland and eastern Melbourne has experienced one of the worst storms in Victoria’s history.

The June 2021 storm triggered a string of emergency events including flood, power outages, property damage and isolation that many of our members and community were directly impacted by.

Latrobe Health recognises events like this require extra support, and so we have moved quickly to put in place supports for our members and community throughout this devastating emergency.

We will offer members suffering hardship as a result of these floods the opportunity to suspend health insurance payments for up to six months without impacting their membership.

In recognition of the incredible contribution of emergency services volunteers, we are waiving premiums for one month for Latrobe members who safeguarded our community as first responders for both the Victorian Country Fire Authority and the State Emergency Service.

In addition, Latrobe Health has also provided support to our community who have been directly impacted, we are contributing $25,000 to the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund, which provides immediate financial relief to Gippslanders affected by natural disasters.

Your health and wellbeing is our top priority

Your health and wellbeing is our number one priority, so if you’ve lost or are on reduced income as a result of the storm and floods, you can ask about our hardship support for members.

Hardship support includes temporarily suspending your membership – for up to six months - and you won’t have to re-serve waits when you reactivate your membership.

Suspending your membership means you retain your membership but you won’t have to pay premiums for the suspension period.

If you need to go into hospital while your membership is suspended, to make a claim you’ll need to reactivate your membership and pay your premiums once more, but you won’t have to re-serve any waiting periods. The easiest way to sort it out is to give us a call.

For full details on hardship support and to enquire about eligibility, talk to a member of our team.

Benefits of keeping your cover

With long public waiting times influenced by the COVID pandemic, many procedures like cancer-related surgeries and screening programs, joint and hip surgeries, endoscopy, paediatric surgery, IVF and dental surgery are important for our members.

If you cancel your policy, you might need to re-serve waiting periods (up to 12 months) if you decide to rejoin any fund in the future.

More information

For more information about how we can support you, please contact us on 1300 362 144.