Senate debates

Thursday, 30 November 2017

Questions without Notice

Private Health Insurance

2:41 pm

Photo of Concetta Fierravanti-WellsConcetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Absolutely—your ill-informed policies on private health insurance will ensure that Australian families, especially including those in Bennelong, will have to pay higher cost for their premiums, with potential increases of 16 per cent. This is on top of the premium increases that they suffered—a rise of over 28 per cent—during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. Just as you've flip-flopped and done all sorts of things in relation to the Medicare offices, you have flip-flopped on private health insurance as well. When you were in power, you cut $4 billion from private health insurance when you introduced means testing, and you were even proud of it, because— (Time expired)

Comments

Tibor Majlath
Posted on 1 Dec 2017 6:53 pm

In the last ten years premiums have increased on average 5.6% per year. That represents 28% under the Coalition in the last five years.

Of course, we can expect 'lower' increases in health premiums under recent Coalition policies.

Pretty much in the same league as the massive $2/week saving from Coalition energy policies.

Fiddling around the edges achieves little as usual.