Health fund’s warning: Don’t ditch your insurance

Australians are opting out of private health insurance in droves thanks to rising fees, but one fund has warned there could be an even greater cost to ditching it.

Don’t ditch your private health insurance is the implied message from Medibank in its latest batch of patient payout figures.

You might be caught by massive hospital bills of as much as $460,000, and, Medibank points out, not just the elderly are vulnerable to unexpected health costs.

The Medibank data highlights the possibility of expensive treatments, by age group:

• 20-29yo: Mental health, colonoscopy and dentistry

• 30-39yo: Mental health, colonoscopy and major gynaecology

• 40-49yo: Colonoscopy, mental health and gastroscopy

• 50-59yo: Rehabilitation, colonoscopy and mental health

• 60-69yo: Colonoscopy, cancer treatment and mental health.

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“While everyone’s circumstances are different, there are trends across different age groups that may be helpful when reviewing your cover,” Medibank’s chief customer officer David Koczkar said in a statement.

“The data shows that treatment for mental health conditions are among the most common reasons for hospital admission from the ages of 20 to 60 years old, with more than 7500 claims in FY18 across those age groups.

The health fund has warned there could be a huge cost to ditching expensive health insurance.

“While there are some procedures that are more common in particular age groups, mental health issues can affect all of us.”

The policy and household expenses of the private subsidised private health scheme are under fresh evaluation after premium rises and signs of greater reliance of the free services of public hospitals.

Labor last election promised a Productivity Commission inquiry into the scheme including product design, out-of-pocket costs, competitiveness, transparency, and the process of setting premiums.

Shadow health minister Chris Bowen has called on the Morrison Government to do the same.

“Under this Liberal Government costs have never been higher and waiting times have never been longer for health services in Australia,” Mr Bowen has said.

Medibank argues its new figures “shed light on the value Australians receive from private health insurance at different stages of their life”.

It present’s anonymous case histories such as that of a Victorian patient aged in their 50s who spent a year in hospital, at a cost to the insurer of $460,000, after complications in an arthroscopic surgery.

Two other patients each spent 140 days in hospital after operations to surgically making a hole in their windpipes — a tracheostomy — for a total cost to the insurer of $592,000.

Medibank says the top 10 claims paid last financial year totalled more than $3.9 million, or the cost of 1477 days in hospital.