Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hinkler for his question, and I am happy to inform him and the House that the government’s broader health cover legislation has just passed through the parliament. That is very good news for the 59,000 people in Hinkler who enjoy the benefits of private health insurance. I confess that this is complex legislation, but there are two significant changes that it brings about. Firstly, the private health funds will be able to cover from their main tables out-of-hospital treatment that reasonably substitutes for or prevents in-hospital treatment.

Secondly, the funds will be required to provide much greater information about their products, and the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman will provide a comparative product website to enable patients to make more informed choices about the particular product which best suits them. Over time, these changes should mean that private health insurance is a more customer-friendly product, a more patient-friendly product, and that should build on the nine million Australians who currently enjoy the security and choice which private health insurance brings.

I have to say that everyone knows where the Howard government stands on private health insurance. We believe that a strong private health system is an essential complement to a strong public health system, to a strong Medicare system. But no-one knows where members opposite really stand. What we do know is that, deep down, members opposite hate private health. Deep down, they hate private health, and if they ever got the chance, they would rip the guts out of private health insurance by abolishing the private health insurance rebate or by means testing.

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