Media Releases

People in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Queensland are being hit with the highest out-of-pocket fees for private medical care in Australia, new data reveals.

About 11,000 specialist doctors will be obliged to publish their fees on the Government’s Medical Costs Finder website in a big win for consumers.

Too many Australians are being hit with unexpected medical bills and excessive fees from specialist doctors who are sometimes charging more than $950 for a single appointment.

Health funds have today put forward a proposal offering short-term financial assistance for private hospitals in areas of need that are providing essential services for health fund members.

Private Healthcare Australia has appointed former Victorian Premier, John Brumby, to the position of Independent Chair.

A growing number of Australians are investing in health insurance so they can receive fast, high-quality healthcare with their choice of doctor in the private system, new data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) shows.

Private health insurance premiums will increase by an average 3.73% this year. The increase, announced by Federal Health Minister Mark Butler today, is still below health inflation and will be passed on to health insurance members on April 1.

Australian midwives and GPs should be allowed to manage pregnancies and births in the private hospital system under a new proposal that would see health insurers funding more options for expecting families.

Health funds are supporting their members with alternative arrangements for maternity care in the Northern Territory and Tasmania after Healthscope announced it was closing private maternity services.

Health funds paid out a record $8.5 billion in hospital high claims for members in 2023, an analysis of data by Private Healthcare Australia (PHA) reveals.

Health funds will work with the Federal Government to thoroughly examine problems with Gold health insurance products following the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s public statement today.

The Minns Labor Government has backed down on a health tax that would result in an immediate rise to the cost of health insurance for four million NSW residents.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians have taken out health insurance for hospital treatment over the past year, demonstrating strong demand for private healthcare despite the cost-of-living crisis.

Within months of signing contracts with health funds representing 50% of Australia’s private health insurance market, Healthscope has announced it is ripping up the legally binding agreements and will start charging patients who use its hospitals from early next year.

Health insurers are urging people who have had surgery in private hospitals to check if they have been billed incorrectly under ‘no gap fee’ arrangements following allegations specialist doctors have been systematically defrauding patients, health funds and Medicare for personal financial gain.

Nurse practitioners should be given more responsibilities in private hospitals under Medicare to ease a shortage of medical specialists, the peak body for health funds says.

Fibrin sealant medicines will continue to be funded by private health insurers. Suggestions in the media today that health funds will not pay for fibrin sealant medicines from 1 November in private hospitals are completely false.

Healthscope hospitals, the second largest private hospital group in Australia owned by North American private equity group Brookfield, has announced it will charge up to $100 to patients for simply walking into its facilities.

The NSW Government’s new tax on 4 million people with health insurance will exacerbate problems for private hospitals at a critical time for the sector. CEO of Private Healthcare Australia, Dr Rachel David, said the tax will cost NSW families $156 more per year for their health cover from as early as January. Modelling shows this will cause 75,000 people to drop their health insurance in 2025, reducing demand for private hospitals. It will also decimate health fund reserves to assist private hospitals in areas of need in acute financial distress.

NSW families struggling through cost-of-living pressures will have to pay more for private health insurance after the Minns Government’s new health tax was passed by the NSW Legislative Council. The tax will hit lower income earners the hardest from early next year after being rushed through NSW Parliament this week following minimal public scrutiny.