Stirling Griff (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) That the Senate notes that:

(a) the report of the Community Affairs References Committee, Price regulation associated with the Prostheses List Framework, was tabled in the Senate on 11 May 2017;

(b) the price of devices on the Prostheses List has a material impact on health insurance premiums, which have increased by approximately 5.6% each year over the past ten years;

(c) prostheses account for 14% of the cost of hospital cover reimbursements, with a flow-on effect to the cost of premiums, as provided in evidence to the inquiry;

(d) private health insurers indicated to the inquiry that savings on prostheses would be passed to members through lowered health insurance costs;

(e) in February next year, the Minister for Health will announce the average increase in private health insurance premiums, which will take effect in April, based on the applications made by insurers this year;

(f) the Government's response to the 16 recommendations made in the report of the Community Affairs References Committee, combined with the prostheses price reductions it has already mandated this year, will help provide direction to private health insurers that may influence the level of premium increase they decide to seek for 2018; and

(g) the deadline for private health insurers to make an application to the Minister for Health for the 2018 private health insurance premium round is 10 November 2017.

(2) That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Health, by no later than 16 October 2017, the Government's response to the recommendations of the report of the Community Affairs References Committee, Price regulation associated with the Prostheses List Framework.

Question agreed to.