Louise Zacest - CEO of Unimed
A message from UniMed CEO – Louise Zacest
Since its inception, UniMed has been striving to make healthcare more accessible and affordable for everyday New Zealanders and their families/whānau. Over more than four decades, UniMed has grown from its union roots to become a specialist workplace health insurer with a 107,000 strong nationwide membership. Today, UniMed works with many of New Zealand’s leading employers to offer health insurance and wellbeing services to their employees who are UniMed’s members.
As a not-for-profit society, everything UniMed does is focused on its purpose of helping keep people in lifelong good health. UniMed’s vision is to enable healthier, happier people so our nation can thrive, and is underpinned by its values of Aspire, Care and Trust. This emphasis on care and service is reflected in the five-star ratings UniMed receives in independent surveys.
You can read more about UniMed and see our latest Annual Report on our website.
As a member-focused society, our aim is ensuring we continue to meet the needs of our members. We are committed to helping New Zealanders access the health and wellbeing services and support they need, so they can stay in lifelong good health and contribute positively to their communities.
We all know the difference that health insurance can make when people need to access health services to stay well and support them during a health event. We are also mindful that affordability remains a significant concern, particularly in the current economic environment. At the same time, we have a responsibility to ensure we are well-positioned to respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing world. This includes looking at new products, services, technology and partnerships.
It would be hard to find two more like-minded organisations.
For all of these reasons we are excited by the opportunity we have to expand this commitment by combining the resources, skills and capabilities of the Accuro team with those at UniMed. It would be hard to find two more like-minded organisations. Our shared history, values and operating models, and our complementary skills and experiences, all point to this proposal being a natural way forward for both Societies.
It will help ensure we have the scale and resources to deliver on the shared commitment we have to members and provide more opportunities to meet their health needs now and into the future.