Dr Rachel David on ABC Radio Adelaide discusses the value of private health insurance

Transcript
Station: ABC Radio Adelaide
Program: Afternoons
Date: 24/7/2024
Time: 2:46 PM
Compere: Nikolai Beilharz
Interviewee: Dr Rachel David, CEO, Private Healthcare Australia

 

NIKOLAI BEILHARZ: Dr Rachel David is the CEO for Private Healthcare Australia, which is the peak representative body for the private health industry in Australia. Rachel David, thank you for your time this afternoon.
RACHEL DAVID: Hi, Nikolai.
NIKOLAI BEILHARZ: Do you have a level of concern that people are maybe looking at private health broadly and asking the question of whether it’s worth it?
RACHEL DAVID: Well, look, we’ve seen really strong growth in private health insurance membership and participation since 2020. And that’s related to a couple of things. One, it’s strongly related to immigration. But also, people really- a fall-off in confidence of the public hospital system because of several things. One, very long wait times for elective surgery, including wait times even to get into outpatients to have surgery. And two, some of the other issues around public hospitals like, um, emergency department overcrowding and ambulance ramping. So they have driven people into the system. And- so really what we need to do now is to ensure that the system remains affordable for people and to- particularly during a cost of living crisis and during a period of inflation in the economy, and making it as easy as possible for people to retain their health insurance and take pressure off the public system.
NIKOLAI BEILHARZ: Do you think there is a bit of a- maybe a misunderstanding or a misjudgement of what is and isn’t covered by private health? And I know there are a lot of specifics underneath that, but broadly speaking, kind of what people think: okay, if I go and do this, it’ll be covered by private health. If I go and do that, it won’t.
RACHEL DAVID: Okay. Well, look, the system- the whole health system in Australia is complex, and it has become more complex over the years because of all sorts of things. New technology, better treatments, more things being added and so forth. But very briefly, private health insurance will cover you for care in hospital. It will- you know, and treatment. And it will cover you for a proportion of the doctor’s fees, sometimes all the doctor’s fees that you need to pay in hospital, and any medical implants and surgical supplies that he or she chooses to use in your treatment. It will also pay for dental and allied health out of hospital up to a certain amount. But what it can’t pay for and what it’s been locked out of for many years are doctor visits in the community. And look, that’s something that I think with the changing nature of illness, away from acute illness to chronic disease, with the big shifts that we’re seeing in hospital care, with hospital stays getting a lot shorter and more treatments being provided in the community, we think that’s probably something that needs to be reviewed and changed at the moment, so that people can get more support for seeing a doctor in the community as well as in hospital.
NIKOLAI BEILHARZ: And what about those, uh, coverage plans that are kind of- well, I guess at the very cheapest end where maybe you don’t get as much coverage as if you’re paying more? As we’ve heard, they’ve kind of been described as junk policies or policies that people take on to- kind of from a financial front, from a tax implication front. Um, is there worry within the industry that people are taking on those policies, believing that they do have a higher level of care than they- coverage than they provide?
RACHEL DAVID:

Well, look, it’s a lot less common than it was. The former federal government put in place a tiering system for policies to make it easier for people to understand what they were getting. And it’s laid out- and a comparator site that the government has lays it out – it’s called privatehealth.gov.au – so that you can compare the different policies. So it’s gold, silver, bronze and basic. Now basic policies often just cover you for a few things, like a few things that might happen in an emergency, for example, or that young people might encounter. But it’s used as an entry level product for people often when they’re pretty healthy. You know, they might have hit the income threshold, so they’d have to pay the Medicare levy surcharge anyway, which is a higher tax that you pay if you don’t have health insurance and you earn a better income. So, you know, they might as well get something. So they take out- so they can take out health insurance at that basic level. But the great majority of those people upgrade when their needs change.

And I think the important thing is, if you’re considering taking out private health insurance, you need to, to some extent, evaluate your own likelihood of illness or experiencing a need, and then go ahead and compare policies. So if you are, you know, a 20-something and you’re only exposure to [Indistinct] illness is a likelihood to get an infectious disease, or have an accident. And, you know, that’s something [Indistinct]…

NIKOLAI BEILHARZ: [Talks over] And then look at that later. Yeah.
RACHEL DAVID: Yeah.
NIKOLAI BEILHARZ: Okay. Rachel, thank you for your time. Dr Rachel David, who’s the CEO of Private Healthcare Australia, the peak body representing the private health industry in Australia.
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