Double blow to private health insurance premium costs

PRIVATE health insurance members are about to be hit twice by price pain on April 1. This is how customers will be slogged once the changes happen.

PRIVATE health insurance members are about to be slugged with a double whammy to their policy costs including scaled-back premiums and hikes to their annual costs from April 1.

And the doubled price pain could result in more people dumping their cover, experts say.

Singles earning less than $90,000 — or the base tier — will be slugged an additional $104 annually by both the 3.95 per cent increase to premiums and reduction to their base tier rebates, which go down from 25.9 per cent to 25.4 per cent.

HEALTH: More Australians consider giving health insurance the flick

Families earning less than $180,000 will be slugged an additional $190 per year, new analysis by financial services firm Canstar found.

About one in two Australians are considering getting rid of their private health cover.

The site’s spokesman Josh Callaghan said the rebate has gradually been scaled back from 30 per cent and now depends on an individual or family’s income tiers as to how much money they will get back.

“Health insurance premiums are already at all-time highs and another $100 or more isn’t what people can take,’’ he said.

Canstar’s spokesman Josh Callaghan said consumers will be hit by a reduced rebate and increased premium charges.

“It’s another reason in the mounting reasons why consumers may start considering whether they should have private health insurance at all which is a problem for the public health system.”

HEALTH: Beat the private health insurance price hike

The rebate tiers will also decrease across both tiers one and two — for singles’ salaries ranging from $90,001 to $140,000 and for couples’ salaries from $180,001 to $280,000.

No rebates applies to singles’ salaries above $140,001 and couples’ salaries above $280,001.

Official statistics show 11.3 million Australians have hospital cover — a fall of 0.2 per cent in the December quarter.

The number of Australians with private health cover is falling.

A spokesman for the Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt said despite the repetitive hits to consumers’ hip pocket “we understand every single dollar matters.”

“Our package of real reforms have just delivered the lowest annual premium change in 17 years,’’ he said.

Canstar data found 52 per cent of Australians are already thinking of getting rid of their cover due to rising living costs.

The nation’s fourth largest insurer NIB’s group executive Rhod McKensey urged consumers to review their policies at least ever two years.

“We understand that as life changes so do our health cover needs,’’ he said.

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Originally published as Double blow to private health insurance premium costs