Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Several days ago I received an email from a resident of my electorate, and I want to read part of it. It says:

I have been a dialysis patient and disability pensioner for 24 years. I have no chance of getting a kidney transplant. I attend a private dialysis clinic so as not to strain the public health system. Private health subscriptions are increasing at a faster rate than my pension is. I am struggling financially.

That's a real story of a real person who is struggling to meet her health needs.

Since 2013, in the past five years under this coalition government, private health insurance costs have risen by 27 per cent, adding over $1,000 per annum in cost to most families. Over the same period, CPI increases have been about 10 per cent. In other words, private health insurance costs have increased by about 2½ times the CPI rise.

The increases come at a time when private health insurers are making healthy profits. Last year they made $1.8 billion, with some of the biggest health insurance providers making a return of over 20 per cent on their money. Even more concerning is that around 40 per cent of policies now contain exclusions—compared with just 8.6 per cent 10 years ago. So families are effectively paying a lot more and getting a lot less. Not surprisingly, people are dropping their private health insurance. In 2017, private hospital coverage dropped to the lowest level since 2011. It is important to note that the private health insurance industry receives around $6 billion a year in taxpayer subsidies.

Enough is enough, and I am pleased to see that a Shorten Labor government will cap the increases in private health insurance for two years. Labor will also task the Productivity Commission with the most significant review of the private health system in 20 years, to ensure that private health insurance provides value for money. For people in regional, rural and remote Australia—where private health insurance take-up rates are already about 10 per cent lower than for the rest of the country and where health status is much worse than in the cities—Labor's commitment to cap private health insurance rates to two per cent will make a welcome difference. It is time that Australians got value for their health dollars, and under this government what we have seen is, time and time again, the cost of health increasing and the services decreasing.