9 December 2019 - Health funds strong-armed by the government into rising their membership fees by the lowest annual rate in 19 years have called for "urgent" industry reform to help them deal with their rising costs.

Health minister Greg Hunt on Saturday said health insurance premiums would increase by an average of 2.92% next April, after rejecting the funds' proposal for averages hikes of 3.5 %.

The smallest annual increase since 2001 will come as a relief for consumers, whose wages are only growing at 2.2% annually and have been dropping out of the private system because of affordability.

Read The Age article