4 years ago
YOUNG AUSTRALIANS ABANDON PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE
CHRIS BOWEN MP
Young people are voting with their feet when it comes to private health insurance as the Government refuses to act on this unfolding crisis.
Under this Government out of pocket health costs and wait times for health care are at record highs, while private health insurance is being abandoned at an alarming rate, leading to increasingly unaffordable costs.
Yesterday afternoon’s Quarterly Private Health Insurance Statistics have confirmed thousands of young Australians aged 25 – 34 abandoned their hospital insurance from June to September.
The report from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority confirms:
The largest decrease in coverage during the quarter was 4,485 for people aged between 30 and 34. The largest net decrease (taking into account movement between age groups) was for the age group between 25 and 29, with a drop of 7,044 people.
The Government should accept responsibility when it comes to taking action on private health insurance reform and call for a root and branch review of the entire sector to ensure customers are getting value for money.
In July the Minister went from claiming he’d accomplished the “most significant reforms to private health insurance in over a decade” to ten days later boasting about launching a fresh review on private health insurance, without any detail.
Last month in Senate Estimates, senior officials confirmed they had not been commissioned an official review from the Minister.
This Government has been sitting on its hands while health costs across the board have been soaring.
The only way to address the private health insurance crisis is with a root and branch review of the system.
The time for a review into private health insurance is now.
Under this Government out of pocket health costs and wait times for health care are at record highs, while private health insurance is being abandoned at an alarming rate, leading to increasingly unaffordable costs.
Yesterday afternoon’s Quarterly Private Health Insurance Statistics have confirmed thousands of young Australians aged 25 – 34 abandoned their hospital insurance from June to September.
The report from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority confirms:
The largest decrease in coverage during the quarter was 4,485 for people aged between 30 and 34. The largest net decrease (taking into account movement between age groups) was for the age group between 25 and 29, with a drop of 7,044 people.
The Government should accept responsibility when it comes to taking action on private health insurance reform and call for a root and branch review of the entire sector to ensure customers are getting value for money.
In July the Minister went from claiming he’d accomplished the “most significant reforms to private health insurance in over a decade” to ten days later boasting about launching a fresh review on private health insurance, without any detail.
Last month in Senate Estimates, senior officials confirmed they had not been commissioned an official review from the Minister.
This Government has been sitting on its hands while health costs across the board have been soaring.
The only way to address the private health insurance crisis is with a root and branch review of the system.
The time for a review into private health insurance is now.