Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Certainly the work the government does on an annual basis scrutinises this. I cannot recall off the top of my head the last increase, but it was a modest increase to private health insurance. This is something the minister looks at carefully and takes a range of advice on.

The prices some private specialists charge are over and above even the responsibility of the private health insurer—for those out-of-pocket costs on top of or above the scheduled fee for these procedures. That is a decision of the doctors providing that service. I know, having been through it recently here in the ACT, the charges for my family member were a hundred times what the scheduled fee was. So there is a problem, and it needs further scrutiny about what can be done, particularly here in the ACT, where people often charge double what the costs are in places like Sydney or Melbourne or, indeed, Adelaide. (Time expired)