HUNT FAILING AUSTRALIANS ON PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE

04 October 2019


Greg Hunt must stop sitting on his hands when it comes to private health insurance.

While todays call from the private health insurance sector is another unrealistic proposal for more subsidy at a cost to the taxpayer, at least PHA is suggesting policy options, unlike this Government.

If the Minister was serious about making private health insurance affordable and sustainable for Australians he would call for an independent review of the system now.

The private health insurance sector seeking further Government subsidy as reform for the industry is increasingly untenable.

This is not the answer to affordable and sustainable private health care for Australians. What is needed is an independent root and branch review of the private health system.

First the Minister claimed job done on private health insurance reform, then he claimed he had a plan to fix it.

Its hard to know what the Ministers claim is this week.

But what we do know is that under this Government out of pocket health costs and wait times for health care are at record highs.

This is while private health insurance is being abandoned at an alarming rate, leading to increasingly unaffordable costs.

This Government has been sitting on its hands while health costs across the board have been soaring.

Greg Hunt has the opportunity to do a serious review of the private health system to take real action on pressures facing the system and consumers, and he should do so immediately.