Dr Rachel David spoke with 2CC radio Canberra about the ACT’s tax on health insurance

02 Sep 2025Interviews and Transcripts

Transcript

Station: 2CC
Program: Canberra Live
Date: 2/9/2025
Time: 4:08 PM
Compere: Leon Delaney

Interviewee: Dr Rachel David, CEO, Private Healthcare Australia

LEON DELANEY:	Private Healthcare Australia has urged the ACT Government to retreat from a- well, what Private Healthcare Australia has described as a tax increase by stealth. To explain exactly what’s going on, the CEO of Private Healthcare Australia, Dr Rachel David, good afternoon.
RACHEL DAVID:	Hi, Leon.
LEON DELANEY:	Thanks for joining us today. We know already that the ACT Government is desperate for money and they tried to introduce their public hospital levy. They were forced to reduce that after a significant backlash but this is a different fee again apparently?
RACHEL DAVID:	Yes, well this is something that’s going to affect 65 per cent of Canberrans, that is people with private health insurance. There’s been this stealthy tax that is on private health insurance, it’s called an ambulance levy although it has nothing to do with ambulances. It’s just a tax on private health insurance premiums that goes into revenue and they decided to put it up without any consultation with our sector. We just found out on budget day and the problem with that is that this is one in a long line of hits to people trying to access private health care in Canberra, including some of the highest doctor’s fees in Australia. So what we’re concerned about is this could really be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for people trying to manage these costs.
LEON DELANEY:	So how much is it going up? And of course, obviously, the impact is that private health insurance companies have no choice but to pass on the cost in the form of higher premiums, don’t they?
RACHEL DAVID:	Well, that is true. It’s not something the companies want to do, but this has been rusted on into perpetuity. It’s going to keep happening every year. So it doesn’t sound like much. It’s 10 per cent on a tax people are paying already, but the reality is most other states don’t charge a tax on private health insurance. It’s part of the Medicare system, which is a federal managed system, and this really is just a revenue grab from people who are trying to do the right thing by investing in their own healthcare and keeping- essentially, keeping public hospitals for people that that really need them.
LEON DELANEY:	Okay. Even if it was actually called- if it actually did have something to do with the ambulance, that’s a bit disingenuous, isn’t it? Given that if you do call the ambulance, you’re going to be billed for it and you have to provide that bill to your private insurance company if you are fortunate enough to have private insurance, and if not, you’re at the mercy of the government. It’s not like Queensland where the ambulance is free for all citizens.
RACHEL DAVID:	No, that is exactly right. So people in the ACT are actually paying for the same service multiple times. They’re paying through their taxes, the Medicare system, and for public hospitals. They’re paying health insurance premiums. They’re paying extra fees and charges to doctors, which are actually the highest fees in Australia, and then these increased levies. And I think people would rightly consider, well, why am I trying to do the right thing and being hit up yet again?
LEON DELANEY:	It is difficult, isn’t it? And of course, the quote that was included with your media release was exactly what you just said now, that people with private health insurance are being stung multiple times for the same services and you said they pay through their taxes, through their private health insurance premiums, through extra fees and charges when they go to a hospital, through the increased levies and through paying the most inflated doctor’s fees in Australia. It reminds me of the immortal quote from Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon but I can’t repeat it on the radio. But they sting you and they sting you and they sting you and then they sting you and then they sting you again, basically.
RACHEL DAVID:	And I think for people with private health insurance, governments will be well- would do well to recognise that they’re not necessarily well off and they are dealing with the cost of living issues the same as everyone else.
LEON DELANEY:	Yeah, absolutely. And that is an important point as well. Obviously, private health insurance is a significant cost for many families, but they pay that cost because they believe that it’s worth it and they want to do the right thing, don’t they?
RACHEL DAVID:	That is right and the private sector does do its share of heavy lifting, 70 per cent of the planned or elective surgery that takes place in Australia is in the private sector, and most that is funded by private health insurance but of the people in Canberra with private health insurance, 53 per cent of them have an income under $90,000 a year. They’re not rich. They’re people who need care and they need to take some control over when and where they have it. So I think that Government just needs to think twice about hitting up people in that situation for more and more money.
LEON DELANEY:	Yeah, extraordinary times. Of course, the ACT Government is under a lot of scrutiny at the moment about its budget management, and there are deficits for as far as the eye can see, and a growing ACT Government debt. They’re desperate to claw in as much tax as they can and it looks all paying the price for that, aren’t we?
RACHEL DAVID:	Well, that’s true, but you’ve got to be careful that you’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul to use the expression. What this could do, if people do become fed up with all of the drip pricing that’s going on with private health, when they do get sick, they end up in an emergency department in the public hospital anyway and the state still has to pay. So it’s very short-sighted to keep chasing after the wallets of people with private health insurance because there is a point when they downgrade or they give it up and then they’re straight into onto a public hospital waiting list or into a public ED.
LEON DELANEY:	Indeed, Rachel, thanks very much for chatting today.
RACHEL DAVID:	Thanks, Leon.
LEON DELANEY:	Thank you, Dr Rachel David, the CEO of Private Health Care Australia, and see, the ACT Government has snuck that one through without much of- there’s been no announcement or fanfare and there it is. They thought we wouldn’t notice because they’re sending the bill to the private insurance companies, and the private insurance companies have now just sounded the alarm and said, hang on a minute, if you do this, it’s only going to make the premiums more expensive for the patients. It’s not actually going to help people. It’s going to hurt them.
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