Updated
Private health insurance premiums will be ranked in a bid to help consumers figure out exactly what they are paying for, from April next year.
The Federal Government has unveiled the new categories — gold, silver, bronze and basic — for the more than 70,000 private health insurance policies around the country, held by about 13 million Australians.
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Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt argued the measure would give consumers more information about their coverage, and set benchmarks for the minimum services that would be offered under each policy regardless of insurer.
“What this means is we take the existing policies, no change in price, no change in coverage, but we make it simpler so everybody can see in one page exactly what is in place,” he said.
The changes to the system will result in more cancer treatments being covered by private health, particularly for women suffering breast and ovarian cancer.
“There’s been a disparity in the past between coverage of men and women for different types of cancers, so it’s another important day for cancer treatment for women,” Mr Hunt said.
‘Junk’ policies still a problem, argues Labor
Shadow Health Minister Catherine King welcomed the new categories, saying any measure to increase consumer knowledge was an improvement.
But Ms King argued the Government was not doing enough to get rid of low-cost policies that provided little coverage.
What it means for you
If you’re in your 20s and tossing up whether or not to buy private health insurance, take a look at what the proposed shake-up could do for you.
“What Labor has said is that we will remove the private health insurance rebate from those junk policies, in particular those ones that only offer private health insurance cover in public hospitals,” she said.
“We think that that is not warranted when you’ve got a number of consumers using that product, frankly, as an effort to minimise taxation as opposed to actually access private health insurance.
“What we’ve seen increasingly under this Government is more and more complexity in the sorts of products that are around, more exclusions, more excess payments, more gap payments in those products, and less value for money for consumers.”
The Coalition argues Labor’s approach to low-cost policies, which would be classified as “basic” under the new system, would do more harm than good.
“I know that the ALP wants to effectively knock out the basic categories, but that would lead to a 16 per cent price hike in private health insurance, which would drive hundreds of thousands, if not millions out of private health insurance,” Mr Hunt said.
Is health insurance worth it?
If you’re about to hit your 30s and you haven’t yet got private health insurance, the time to decide is now.
Private Healthcare Australia (PHA), which represents the major insurers, welcomed the new measures and said it would pass on information about the changes to customers early next year.
The organisation also defended cheaper policies.
“The basic and bronze tiers also provide affordable entry-level products for younger, healthier people who frequently go on to upgrade as they get older and their life circumstances change,” PHA chief executive Dr Rachel David said.
“The key issue with the lower cost tiers is effective communication to consumers about what is and isn’t covered so they know what they are buying.
“The new classification and information system addresses this.”
Topics:
health-insurance,
government-and-politics,
federal-government,
health,
australia
First posted
Article source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-15/private-health-insurance-categories-premiums-policies-coverage/9995988