Opinion
Health cover is bleeding to death
No other form of insurance adds rather than cuts upfront costs for its users. That must be the starting point for change.
Stephen DuckettHonorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, University of MelbourneLast week’s shock announcement from Medibank that its costs are increasing faster than expected is but the latest symptom of the underlying private health malaise. The litany of problems in the past few months suggests that current policies won’t stop the industry’s death spiral.
The touted 10 per cent discount on premiums now offered to young people has not stopped the youth exodus. The reform of the prostheses schedule did not stop prosthesis cost growth.
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