I took time to cast
a gaze on the opaque private health insurance hoping this will help me make
better informed consumer choice. Where I started months back is not where I
ended. But I learnt in the process that the Federal Government has put in place
a regulatory Parliamentary reform requiring insurers to categorise their
products into a simpler format – Gold/Silver/Bronze/ and Basic.
If you are like
those of us who find private health insurance rather foggy when making a sense
of what is covered and what is not, and if it is value-for-money, then check
out the new reforms.
The change may not
be a panacea, but may contain some positive info in empowering consumer choice.
Here is the link to this updated
regulatory framework titled Private health insurance reforms:
Gold/Silver/Bronze/Basic product tiers:
Many of us prize the
Australian Medicare public system, but private cover gives a sense of security
that if a need arise you get to choose your specialists and avoid long hospital
waitlists.
The new Gold/Silver/Bronze/Basic
product tiers may be a good start in reducing complexity in the private
healthcare product structure. But it is still not clear if this change is
enough to reduce the exodus from this system as people vote with their feet on
grounds that they are not receiving value-for-money.
After browsing
through the rule change, I am left with the following questions:
- What guides the decisions
of private insurers about what items to include and which to exclude under each
product category?
- Is the product
structure regarded as the optimal framework by clinicians on the ground such as
GPs and relevant primary healthcare providers who see patients every day and
make referrals to hospitals and specialists?
- If you pay for your
premiums year in year out why should and insurer decide one day to exclude some
items from a given package, presumably calculated to get people on higher level
costly packages?
- How can policy
makers ensure insurers will not simply chop and change items in the packages as
a way of transferring future cost risk to customers?
- Back in the day
before privatisation the Australian Government had in place its own Medibank
Insurance to drive competition in the healthcare insurance sector. Since the
Government sold off Medibank, what other methods can be used by the Feds to
drive better health choice and outcomes?
- What government
policy review systems are in place to monitor system improvements as a way to
balance consumer and insurers interests?
Whichever way the
upcoming election pans out the federal Government spends substantial tax-payer
money to subsidise private healthcare insurance on top of premiums we pay for
each individual cover.
Accountability
requires Governments of all persuasion to pay attention to this area of public policy.
Tax payer dollars need to deliver value-for-money, much as companies need to be
profitable.
Here is the link to this updated
regulatory framework titled Private health insurance reforms:
Gold/Silver/Bronze/Basic product tiers:
Many of us prize the Australian Medicare public system, but private cover gives a sense of security that if a need arise you get to choose your specialists and avoid long hospital waitlists.
- What guides the decisions of private insurers about what items to include and which to exclude under each product category?
- Is the product structure regarded as the optimal framework by clinicians on the ground such as GPs and relevant primary healthcare providers who see patients every day and make referrals to hospitals and specialists?
- If you pay for your premiums year in year out why should and insurer decide one day to exclude some items from a given package, presumably calculated to get people on higher level costly packages?
- How can policy makers ensure insurers will not simply chop and change items in the packages as a way of transferring future cost risk to customers?
- Back in the day before privatisation the Australian Government had in place its own Medibank Insurance to drive competition in the healthcare insurance sector. Since the Government sold off Medibank, what other methods can be used by the Feds to drive better health choice and outcomes?
- What government policy review systems are in place to monitor system improvements as a way to balance consumer and insurers interests?
