In sweeping changes to Australia’s private health insurance system, insurers will be able to charge higher excesses and offer discounts to under-30s in a package that is designed to make insurance more attractive to the younger Australians moving off their parents health plans in their early 20s.
The headline savings measure for people under 30 is a 2 per cent discount on premiums for every year, capped at a limit of 10 per cent, as well as increased mental health services.
Speaking with Mr David Koch on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program on Friday morning, the Minister for Health and Minister for Sport, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, “so it’s real reform, that at the end of the day delivers a package which is simpler for people, so as there were no surprises, reduced pressure on premiums with discounts for young people who are desperate to get private health and then better mental health coverage and better rural and regional coverage”.
Seeking to limit the ambiguity of deliberately verbose product disclosure statements and confusing inclusions, the reforms will institute a ratings system whereby products will be categorised into Gold, Silver, Bronze and Basic.
The Government’s package also addresses the dreaded premium increases, which, like clockwork, have been in April each year and have been five to six per cent for many years. The Government contends from next April, rises should be only about three per cent.
While praising the savings from the prostheses list to reduce premiums, Labor has poured scorn on the package, with the Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare, the Hon Catherine King MP, saying “the people who pay the most for private health, and use the most private health, will continue to see their premiums increase next year. The damage has already been done.”
