“The Minister has identified that there are a number of issues to discuss before changes to the method of indexing the Private Health Insurance Rebate come into play in 12 months time.
“One issue which will need to be considered is the fact that health inflation runs at a figure significantly higher than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and therefore it is likely that consumers will be paying more for their private health care.
“This will be a further imposition on privately insured Australians and any move which might result in people leaving Private Health Insurance will also have a negative effect on Public Hospitals.
“Private Healthcare Australia will look to do further work to assess the longer term effect of this on consumers”.