Although there’s evidence yoga may be helpful for some medical conditions, it can no longer be claimed under private health insurance.
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When you enter a public hospital, you are likely to be asked if you have private health insurance, and if you want to use it. This is what you need to consider.
Premium subsidies encourage Australians to take out and keep private health insurance.
Subsidies for private health insurance premiums cost the government over A$6 billion a year. Is it time to scrap the rebate and redirect these funds elsewhere in the health system?
Health is the largest single component of state government expenditure.
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Private health insurance premiums will rise from April 1, leaving consumers wondering if they should give it up or downgrade to save money.
Australians are spending a larger proportion of their income on health insurance as premium increases outpace wage growth.
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Fron Jackson-Webb, The Conversation; Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation e Benjamin Silvester, The Conversation
Private health insurance premiums are set to rise again. These 14 charts (well, technically 10 charts and four tables) look at some of the reasons why health insurance premiums keep going up and up.
Government price controls start with good intentions but often result in unintended consequences.
AAP/David Crosling
We are paying more for our health insurance because we are using it more. No crude, short-term measures to restrict premium growth will deal with this fact.
There’s an economic case for scrapping the rebates.
Stephen Postles/AAP
Private health insurance is meant to take pressure off the public system. But with exclusionary policies, people are increasingly avoiding the levies and using the public system anyway.
Australia’s investment in community mental-health services is subordinate to our focus on care provided by public and private hospitals.
DAVID MARIUZ/AAP Image
Recently announced changes to private health insurance reinforce the primacy of hospitals for mental health issues. This is despite many inquiries recommending better community mental-health care.
‘HOW MUCH has my health insurance gone up?!’ There’s a simple reason premiums are increasing.
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Whether a 10% discount is enough to increase health insurance take-up by young people, many of whom are in precarious employment arrangements or unemployed, is a question for the marketeers.
Going home after a total knee replacement and having regular physiotherapy means you recover just as fast as if you’d chosen to stay in hospital for your rehab. And it’s cheaper.
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Private patients who stay in hospital for costly rehab after major knee surgery recover just as fast as people who go home and have physiotherapy. So, why pay more?
Dissatisfaction with private health insurance policies is growing.
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The AMA are pushing for simplified insurance packages that would see gold, silver and bronze products offered. This won’t solve the overall problem with private health insurance.
A byproduct of Australia’s fractured federalism is that both the Commonwealth and state governments fund public hospitals.
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Leaked documents of a secret ‘taskforce’ to reform public hospital funding reveal some controversial proposals. So how are hospitals funded and why might this need changing?
Consumers continue to view private health insurance as poor value for money.
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The 30% subsidy for private health insurance was predicted to be a bad and costly policy many years ago. And 20 years later, the only thing that’s changed is the $6 billion-plus hole in the budget.
It’s basically impossible to tell the difference between various policies and levels of cover.
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Health is always a key factor in deciding which way to vote. So what have the major parties promised in health? And what could these changes mean for consumers?
Would you put a heart in a machine’s hands?
robot heart via www.shutterstock.com
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne