Online retailer Kogan.com will start selling budget health insurance policies under a new brand dubbed Kogan Health, after signing a deal with private health insurer Medibank Group.
The deal is set out for an initial three-year period and will be administered via Medibank-owned Australian Health Management Group (ahm), Kogan said in a statement to the ASX on Tuesday.
The e-commerce platform will be in charge of providing online branding, marketing and customers, and will earn commissions on sales of all insurance policies, while Medibank will provide an underwriting to raise investment capital from investors.
The announcement sent Kogan shares up 2.7 per cent to $4.84 by 1251 AEDT on Tuesday, while Medibank's shares fell 1.2 per cent to $3.26.
Kogan has a portfolio of businesses including in retail, insurance, mobile and travel, and in June announced it would start selling fixed-line national broadband network home internet next year, after agreeing to expand its partnership with Vodafone.
Executive director David Shafer said the partnership with Medibank was another important opportunity to "delight" the company's growing number of members by offering better value health insurance.
"Having more than eight million Aussies as members of the Kogan community enables us to form strong commercial partnerships like this, which result in a win-win-win for Medibank, Kogan's shareholders and, most importantly, Kogan's customers," Mr Shafer said.
"Kogan Health will bring healthy competition to the health insurance industry, ultimately making it more affordable to take control of your health."
Kogan expects to launch its health insurance business in the second half of the current financial year.
