Posted by Michael Wonder on 23 Aug 2017
Debate: Are doctors or insurers to blame for health insurance price hikes?
23 August 2017 - The peak body for the private health insurance industry, Private Healthcare Australia (PHA), has been warning that private health insurance is heading towards being unaffordable for many Australians. It says as many as one in five policy holders might leave the insurance pool in five to six years.
PHA says one big concern is out of pocket costs and specialist gaps – the difference between what a procedure costs and what Medicare or an insurer pays. This claim is both misleading and mischievous. Increases in out of pocket costs cannot and should not be blamed on doctors and other health professionals in the system.
The government and some private health insurers have not indexed benefits to match the increase in costs of providing a service for several years.
