Today the Federal Member for Gilmore Ann Sudmalis congratulated Minister for Health, Greg Hunt for simplifying private health insurance and making it more affordable.
Mrs Sudmalis said that every dollar matters and these reforms will help get better value for families and make policies easier to understand. “People have dropped out of private health because it was way too expensive,” she said. “But now our changes will allow insurers to discount hospital insurance premiums for 18 to 29 year olds by up to 10 per cent, so young Aussies should now take a look at their options,” she said. “People needing mental health treatment will be able to upgrade their cover and access mental health services without a waiting period on a once-off basis. “There are some real benefits to people living in Gilmore too, insurers will be able to offer travel and accommodation benefits for people to travel for treatment. “And if policies are still too expensive, you have the option of choosing a higher excess in exchange for lower premiums. "This is the first time the Federal Government has successfully negotiated with health insurance providers to get a better deal for everybody since 2001,” said Mrs Sudmalis. Health Minister Greg Hunt said that many Australians currently find private health insurance confusing and the different levels of cover hard to understand. “To make health insurance deals simply to understand, providers will need to describe their products as gold/silver or bronze, like car and house insurance, and use basic definitions for treatments to make clear what is and what isn’t covered in their policies.” Minister Hunt said. The privatehealth.gov.au website will be upgraded to make it easier to compare insurance products, and insurers will be able to provide personalised information to consumers on their product every year. We’re also boosting the powers of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman and increasing its resources to make sure consumer complaints are resolved clearly and quickly. We are investing around $6 billion every year in the private health insurance rebate to help keep premiums affordable for families. By contrast, Labor hates private health insurance and has already confirmed that they will cut the rebate. This will hurt millions of Australian families including those living in Gilmore. Labor cut $4 billion from the private health insurance rebate and means tested it. And now they’ve confirmed they want to do it again. The Coalition Government is committed to improving private health insurance into the future, a process of continual improvement. Media Release
