Decision

Two rises in 91 days: Partners Life's older health cover is up 18.9%, its newer plan 3.9%

Source: Partners Life, Private Medical Cover Premium Changes

The two rounds multiply out to 18.9% on Protection Plan private medical cover, and holders meet the lot in one anniversary letter with the rise for being a year older on top. Last year a round announced as 2% reached existing clients as 20%.

By Henry Smith · Premiums · 2026-06-17

What this means for you Two price rises in one quarter multiply out to 18.9% on Protection Plan health cover, and holders meet the whole lot in one anniversary letter, on top of the yearly rise for being a year older. The newer Journey Plan moved 3.9% over the same two rounds. Switching product or insurer means fresh health questions, which lands hardest on older holders.

Written by Henry Smith · Reviewed by Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931)

Partners Life raised the price list on its older health insurance twice in 91 days. Rates on Partners Protection Plan private medical cover, which pays for private hospital and specialist treatment, rose 16.6% from 22 April 2026, then another 2.0% from 22 July (riskinfo NZ, 17 March 2026, and riskinfo NZ, 9 June 2026, both). The two multiply out to 18.9%. Journey Plan, the newer product on sale to new customers, rose 3.9% over the same two rounds.

Holders see none of that on the day it takes effect. It reaches them in a single anniversary letter that bundles every round since their last anniversary and adds the rise for being a year older. Last year showed how wide that gap can be. Partners Life announced a round of 2% for July 2025, then told advisers that for existing clients with anniversaries on or after 22 July 2025, "the annual increase will be 20%" (riskinfo NZ, 17 June 2025). Two percent was the round. Twenty was the letter.

So what does this mean for a Protection Plan holder?

The number that matters is the one in the anniversary letter, not the percentages in these notices. A holder whose anniversary falls after 22 July 2026 meets three rounds at once, because a 2.0% rise also took effect on 22 January 2026 (riskinfo NZ, 15 December 2025). That is 21.3% on the price list in six months, before anything personal is counted.

The personal part is real. A saved earlier version of Partners Life's own premium-changes page says the yearly change is "calculated based on age related premium changes, inflation adjustments to benefits, underlying premium rate and loyalty premium reductions" (Partners Life, earlier cached version). In plain terms: the holder is a year older, benefits were topped up for inflation, the price list moved, and any loyalty discount comes off. Health cover costs more with every year of age, so the 21.3% arrives before age does anything, and the rise in the flat annual policy fee sits on top of that.

What Partners Life announced

Two notices to advisers set the 2026 rounds. The first, published by riskinfo NZ on 17 March 2026, lifted Protection Plan private medical rates, including the Specialists and Tests Option, by 16.6% from 22 April, put the Journey Plan rise at 2.0%, and raised the flat annual policy fee on both products by 3.0%, from $64.13 to $66.05. Partners Life put the round down to "rising medical costs ... an increased volume of claims, and a struggling public health system".

The second notice, on 9 June 2026, added another 2.0% to Protection Plan and 1.9% to Journey Plan from 22 July. Chatswood Consulting, which tracks insurer notices for advisers, confirmed both figures and said the rise applies "for policy anniversaries from 22 July 2026" (Chatswood, 17 June 2026).

Why the two rises do not simply add up

Base rates are the insurer's price list: what cover costs at each age, before anything about an individual policy is added. Lift that list twice and the second rise applies to the already higher price, so the two multiply. A rate sitting at 100 before April goes to 116.6, and July's 2.0% takes it to 118.9.

Chart and table: rises as reported in the notices linked above. Running totals are QuoteHub arithmetic, multiplied from 21 January 2026. Price list only, so they leave out age-related rises, benefit inflation and the policy fee.

Date it starts	Protection Plan rise	Journey Plan rise	Protection Plan running total	Journey Plan running total
22 January 2026	+2.0% (riskinfo NZ, 15 December 2025)	+2.0% (same source)	+2.0%	+2.0%
22 April 2026	+16.6% (riskinfo NZ, 17 March 2026)	+2.0% (same source)	+18.9%	+4.0%
22 July 2026	+2.0% (riskinfo NZ, 9 June 2026)	+1.9% (same source)	+21.3%	+6.0%

Why did the newer plan rise so much less?

Because Journey Plan is barely a year old and started from current claims costs rather than having to catch up to them. Same insurer, same treatment costs, same dates, and the older product took 4.8 times the rise. The reasons Partners Life gave cover everyone it insures: pharmaceuticals, specialist services, technology, more claims. None of those costs care which product a claim is paid from.

What separates the two is which shelf they sit on. Journey Plan is the newer range, on sale since late 2025, and the June notice says existing Protection Plan clients can transfer to it. A newer product can fairly need smaller corrections for that reason alone. Either way, the product on sale to new customers moved 3.9% in the quarter, and the product existing holders sit in moved 18.9%.

Can a holder simply move away from it?

Not without giving something up. Transferring to Journey Plan trades cover for price. Its smaller rises partly come from a design that lets clients drop options, so the fair comparison is what each policy pays for, not the headline percentage.

Changing insurer carries the same catch in a harder form. New cover means new health questions, and anything that has developed since the original policy was accepted can be left out of the new policy while the old one still covers it. That is why a gap like this bites hardest on older holders and on anyone whose health has changed, the two groups least able to requalify. Our guide to health insurance explains how age-based medical pricing works, and our insurer comparison tool puts the alternatives side by side.

The cost pressure behind the rises is genuine. Partners Life reported claims paid up 16% in its 2024 financial year (the same June 2025 report), and our research on treatment costs and waiting times documents the private treatment inflation behind it. The narrower question this quarter raises is how evenly one insurer split a single price correction between the customers it has and the customers it wants.

What couldn't we check?

The main document is the weak point. Partners Life's premium-changes page loads in a browser but not to a direct fetch. That fetch returned the title and no text, and a rendering service returned an older version about an 11% rise from 22 April 2024. The page is rewritten each round, so its current wording was closed to us, and the quote above comes from that saved earlier version. Every 2026 figure here rests on riskinfo NZ's dated reports, with the July round confirmed by Chatswood Consulting. We found no second outlet for the April round's 16.6%.

We do not know how big an October 2025 adjustment flagged in the December 2025 report was, so the full 12-month bundle for many anniversaries will be larger than the 21.3% we can verify. We do not know whether Protection Plan is still sold to new customers. Our reading, that existing holders absorb the correction while the product on the shelf is spared, is an inference from the gap between the two, and settling it would need claims figures split by product, which are not published. We have not seen a real anniversary letter, and results vary with age, benefit inflation, excess and loyalty discounts.

What this means for your cover

What moves a renewal price, and what a review can and cannot change about it. Health insurance in New Zealand

Sources

Every source below was read and checked on 21 August 2026.

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