Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Some of the big private health insurance companies are making a return on equity of over 20 per cent, a return even larger than the big banks. At the same time, they're charging Australians record amounts for private health insurance. Why is the Prime Minister giving a $65 billion handout to big business, including big insurers, instead of doing something for ordinary Australians who are struggling with the spiralling costs of private health insurance?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You know what? Labor hates private health insurance. Last time they came into government they took an axe to private health insurance. They promised before the election they wouldn't slash the rebate, and when they came in they slashed $4 billion from it. Just to make a virtue of it, here's what the member for Sydney said after they left power: 'Every promise I made I paid for. How did I pay for it? I paid for it by targeting private health insurance.' That's what they think about private health insurance. But what did they do on cost? Here are the private health figures under them: an increase of six per cent, 5.8 per cent, 5.5 per cent, five per cent, 5.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent. Health insurance premiums skyrocketed under Labor, and then there was also the fact that they slashed the rebate—and they want to do it again.

What is their real policy? While we have delivered, after real reform, the lowest change in premiums in 17 years—lower than any year under Labor—their average is more than 40 per cent above what we achieved this year. While that is what we've done, their real policy is to slash the rebate and, on top of that, there is a 16 per cent increase in private health insurance premiums. How does that come about? That comes about because their policy is to abolish low-cost choice-of-doctor premiums. That's their policy. It's clear; it's outright; it's absolute. Their policy is a 16 per cent increase.

What we saw yesterday was a con, a game and a smokescreen to pretend that they could keep some headline rate. But here's what the industry has said. The industry has said (a) that it would be disastrous; (b) after two years it would lead to double-digit premium increases; and (c) most significantly, as we have heard from the head of the AMA, a reduction in the quality of the product. What does that mean? It means higher out-of-pocket costs and fewer services. The very people who most rely on private health, those who have to go to hospital, are the ones who would be eviscerated by this policy—with higher out-of-pocket costs and less coverage. This isn't just an ideologically foolish policy. It isn't just an economically irresponsible policy. It is an utterly dangerous assault on health care for those Australians who have the most need of private health insurance.

Sometimes you get it wrong and sometimes you make a disastrous foray, as these people on that side have done. It's time for the opposition leader to recant the foolishness of last week. He got caught out at the Press Club and he made policy on the run without consultation on the weekend—and, in the end, 13 million Australians will suffer.