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Health
Superannuation and Investments

Investment Ideas: Disease

Aidan NguyenJan SwinhoeDouglas IslesActuaries Institute
By Actuaries Institute, Douglas Isles, Jan Swinhoe, Aidan Nguyen Short read • 20 March 2025

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Could superannuation help solve our healthcare funding crisis?

In our latest instalment of Investment Ideas, hosts Douglas Isles and Jan Swinhoe speak with Dr Raymond Yeow, a unique voice in healthcare who combines perspectives as both a GP and an actuary.

Key areas discussed include:

  • A proposal for Health Savings Accounts within superannuation, based on Singapore's model
  • The increasing trend of Australians withdrawing from their superannuation for medical treatments ($730 million in 2022-23)
  • How introducing price signals through co-payments could create more discerning healthcare consumers
  • The poor state of healthcare data systems and opportunities for actuaries to contribute solutions

About the guest speaker

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Dr Raymond YeowRaymond is now a GP in private practice after several decades working in financial markets. Through his current GP and prior public hospital experience, Raymond has gained insights into the challenges experienced by patients and healthcare staff in creating optimal health outcomes at the individual patient and population health levels.

Raymond believes that combining a lived experience of front line medicine with prior actuarial, financial services and large corporate management experience equips him with wide holistic skills to (a) understand, treat & guide patients with chronic illnesses, (b) assist individuals with strategies to optimise health & performance and (c) contribute towards the re-calibration of a health system to acknowledge a longer living population, and a requirement to promote better health for each individual through policy initiatives for more appropriate delivery structures, payment models and behavioural incentives.

Prior to becoming a medical doctor, Raymond was a major participant at the advent of the financial derivatives in Australia and has established two derivatives departments in Sydney and overseas. He then changed career and follows a vocation that allows him to practice widely, be involved in teaching, and satisfies his intellectual curiosity on a daily basis.

Raymond holds a BA (Macquarie University), MBBS (University of Sydney), MBA (UNSW) and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Actuaries (Australia) & the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.


About the authors
Actuaries Institute
The Actuaries Institute is committed to promoting the actuarial profession and provides expert comment on public policy issues that exhibit uncertainty of future financial outcomes.
Douglas Isles
Douglas qualified as an actuary in 1999 while working at Aegon UK, where he worked in marketing and then as an investment manager. He moved to Australia in 2002, and after a brief spell with CBA, has spent over 17 years at Platinum Asset Management, in two stints, sitting on their management committee since rejoining in 2013. He is currently the Head of Investment, having previously been an Investment Analyst and Investment Specialist. Douglas lived in Singapore from 2009, launching Pengana Capital’s Asian office before working in equity sales for Standard Chartered Bank. He has an MA in Mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge, became a Fellow of the Actuaries Institute in 2019, is a member of the AICD and sits on the board of Odyssey House NSW.
Jan Swinhoe
Jan spent the first 9 years of her career working in the Superannuation world with limited exposure to investment intricacies, but she was curious (and naiive enough) to respond to an ad through the Actuaries Institute that sought trainee derivatives dealers for a large US investment bank. The rest is history with Jan spending the next twenty years of her career in banking and broadening out many aspects of her structuring expertise to complete numerous transactions for large global companies. Since commencing her Non-executive career in 2011, she has sought to merge these passions and has served on a number of Boards including Mercer Superannuation (Chair for 10 years until June 2024), IMB Limited, Suncorp Superannuation, Athletics Australia (First female President) and Fusion Retail Group. Jan currently serves on the Boards of Swiss Re Life & Health, Australian Philanthropic Services and Vanguard Super. Jan’s personal interests include running, financial literacy for all and mental health.
Aidan Nguyen
Aidan is the Public Policy Lead for the Actuaries Institute where he cares about improving and aligning financial wellbeing for all. He helps actuaries use their voices as both trusted adviser and honest broker to get better public policy and effective regulation.


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