Todays quarterly statistics release from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has confirmed a continuation of the trend of people voting with their feet when it comes to private health insurance.

As a result of this Governments inaction, the cost of private health insurance is at a record high leading to the lowest level of Australians covered by hospital treatment coverage in 13 years.

The numbers today have confirmed the largest net decrease in private health insurance for the quarter were from those aged between 25 29, with 11,649 people in this age group abandoning their hospital treatment cover.

The report states At 31 December 2019, 11,233,365 people, or 44.0 per centof the population, were covered by hospital treatment cover. This was a drop of 0.2 percentage points in coverage compared to September 2019.

There was a decrease in coverage of 9,361 insured people in the December 2019 quarter.

Private health insurance premiums have now risen 33 per cent under the Liberals. This increase is higher than inflation and wages growth. And consumers are paying more for less, with rising exclusions and out-of-pocket costs.

Earlier this month APRA Board Member Geoff Summerhayes said that a new approach is urgently needed on private health insurance and that difficult conversations must occur involving all the industrys major stakeholders.

The people of Australia deserve better than this Government who sits on their hands when it comes to doing difficult things. Greg Hunt is too arrogant to adopt a root and branch review of the private health system.

Minister Hunt must come forward and address what he is doing about private health insurance and how he plans to tackle record high wait lists and health costs.