Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today on this very important bill. I support the introduction and passage of the Health Legislation Amendment (Improving Choice and Transparency for Private Health Consumers) Bill 2026. It is a very important bill when it comes to the transparency of our private health insurers. Improving transparency assists the consumer. It ensures that transparency is there, and it gives confidence in the system and confidence in the private health legislation area.

A key concern for Australians across the nation is the cost of health insurance. Many of us speak to many constituents. Not a day goes by without people coming to see me about a whole range of issues, and we get on to health care. One of the things raised, especially by elderly Australians, is that they tighten their belts to ensure that they have private health cover. Therefore, when people are doing it tough, as they are at the moment, it's really important that there is real transparency when consumers are purchasing a health insurance product or using health insurance services. As I said, right now Australians are doing it tough, so it's really important for this transparency to be in place. That's why this bill is very important. It's something that provides that transparency and assists the confidence of the consumer.

Health costs have risen recently, along with the costs of many other things. While this government has made the largest investment in strengthening Medicare, opening many after-hours urgent care clinics and ensuring there are more doctors bulk-billing, we know that Australians still have to deal with the different healthcare practices that exist.

Many years ago, when you took out health cover, it was pretty straightforward. You took out cover, and it would cover you for a whole range of things, whether it was a hospital stay, doctors, specialists or operations. For the last 20-odd years, we've seen the development of health insurance products diverge into a whole range of different products, from extras and excesses to certain procedures. If you want to make the choice not to be covered, it can be there, bringing down your costs. Or, if you take all the whistles and all the beaut things that go with them, that will make the cost even higher.

When receiving private health cover, the last thing Australians want is to be slammed by ballooning out-of-pocket charges in an already extremely complicated private health insurance system. Likewise, no family wants to have insurers sneakily substitute their services for more expensive products. In other words, they don't want to see a service morphing into a different product—which is really the same old product—and pay more for it. They don't want to see out-of-pocket fees skyrocket at each new renewal of the policy or at each new visit that they have with a doctor. It's simply more stress that the everyday family, parent or student, or whoever it is, has to bear when we see increasing costs in private health cover.

Australians want and demand transparency on the fees that are charged to consumers and protection against any dodgy practices, and so should we as legislators. The Australian public certainly want an assurance that the cost of their health care won't saddle them with debt that they cannot manage. Australians deserve access to quality medical advice at the best value that they can find. That's also why this Albanese Labor government is committed to improving the quality of transparency in the area of private health insurance, and that's what we're delivering today with this bill.

The bill provides a series of considered measures that allow Australians to access information on healthcare costs and closes what are called product phoenixing loopholes. In other words, you're offering different products, perhaps as a health insurer, and you then write to all your customers and say, 'At the renewal of this policy, this particular product that you have on your insurance policy will cease to exist, but we offer this product, which is similar but much better.' The reality is that sometimes it's just a sneaky way of increasing the premium by keeping the same product, tinkering with the edges of it and saying, 'It's a brand new product and we're charging a different price for it.' This bill is going to stop the phoenixing product loopholes.

The bill will also allow people to compare costs between medical practitioners and the insurers that they deal with, see details on how they utilise their gap over arrangements and see how practitioner fees change between locations. With the passage of the bill, the Australian public will be able to find fees for every single medical practitioner and they'll be able to locate the out-of-pocket costs for common medical procedures on the Medical Costs Finder website. That's important information for health consumers. After all, when we do go in for a procedure, to see a specialist or to go to the hospital, we want to know what it will cost.

There's no other product that we purchase as consumers where we don't know what the upfront cost is. It just doesn't make sense that we shouldn't have the same information available for health products. If you're going to the hospital, you should know what it's going to cost you at the end of the day and be able to make a comparison with other hospitals, doctors, specialists or other places that are offering this procedure so you can make a choice. If it is dearer, you want to know why a particular product is dearer than another product. That is what this bill is all about. It's about being able to find the fees for every medical practitioner and locate those out-of-pocket costs for common medical procedures on the Medical Costs Finder website.

The government will also publish information about which medical practitioners provide services at each hospital's facilities and which insurers have contracting arrangements with these facilities. For example, if you're going in for a procedure at a hospital, you'll find that the surgeon who's performing the procedure usually has an arrangement with particular hospitals for certain costs. If you don't actually get that information upfront, you could be going to a hospital that your surgeon does not have an arrangement with and they decide to charge you more, or the hospital charges you more, than normal. So I think it's really important that that information is made public, that everyone knows. Now, most doctors, or surgeons, are pretty good; when you go and see them, they'll tell you: 'I operate at XYZ hospitals'—make a choice out of two or three—'That's where I've got an arrangement, and that'll be the lowest cost for you.' But it's not up to them to tell you—they don't have to at this point. This will make it possible for the consumer to know exactly what they're up for.

This bill seeks to close the ability for insurers to engage, as I said, in product phoenixing loopholes as well—loopholes that allow the insurer to replace those existing products with similar new products at a higher premium. I explained that a little bit earlier, where you've got a product and you just decline to offer it at the next renewal of the policy and say, 'We now don't offer that product, but we offer this one'—which is exactly the same. It's just a phoenixing method and an increase in the cost, because it's a roundabout way of increasing the cost without having to go through the proper procedures, where nine out of 10 times they may be told that they can't increase it. These loopholes allow the insurer to replace existing products with similar ones at a higher premium. Not only is this behaviour reducing consumer confidence in private health care; it's also raising the cost paid by the average consumer. And, as I said earlier, some people are doing it really tough. They're tightening their belt on other things, like food, holidays et cetera, just to make sure that they keep their private health cover going.

This bill will amend the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 to require an insurer to seek ministerial approval for premiums for a proposed new product or for changes that reduce that cover. In addition to this, we're passing the modernisation changes for all premium approvals, making sure that this legislation is comprehensive and fit for purpose. Together, these measures are intended to reduce cost-of-living pressures on Australians and increase the transparency of the private healthcare system. The changes will help Australians find the best-value care, and it will improve coverage from insurance premiums by preventing those insurer loopholes.

The government have not brought this legislation in just on their own. They've consulted far and wide to ensure that they get this right. Services Australia, the Attorney-General's Department, the Office of Parliamentary Counsel—each had no concerns with the execution of this bill. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the private health insurance ombudsman and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have also helped further refine and assist with the implementation of this legislation. The AMA, Private Healthcare Australia, Members Health Fund Alliance and numerous consumer peak bodies support these measures. So we can be confident Australians will benefit from the clarity, transparency and peace of mind provided by these changes.

These are changes that'll help in seeking the best value medical advice and instil confidence in private health insurers by outlawing that product phoenixing, which is just a sneaky way of increasing the premiums. It has been used, and there was evidence of that. Simply, this government is ensuring that Australians can make informed decisions about their healthcare team and ensure that private insurers act in good faith with their members—yet another way we've delivered on our election promise of a fairer and more transparent health system.

We're helping medical practitioners too by automatically uploading their Medicare, hospital and insurer billing information to the Medical Costs Finder website, which will be a trove of information. This information, which is already collected by the government, will allow us to expand the variety of medical practitioners and out-of-pocket insurance costs accessible on the website—that'll be immediate. We know that the cost of medical and hospital services is a key driver of health inflation for consumers. These costs feed directly into the cost of out-of-pocket treatment and higher private health premiums from insurance companies. By outlawing product phoenixing by insurers, we can be confident that we can provide transparency and predictability to price increases created by private insurance agencies.

This bill intends to give Australians confidence that their coverage will remain the same and ensure that insurers cannot continue to find sneaky ways of increasing their premiums—which, in the end, is no different to ripping off the everyday Australian consumer. For proposed new products and changes, the government will require that the insurance providers seek and receive approval before passing the cost on to consumers—so there will be ministerial approval. Someone will look at the product that is the new product, and the new prices on the product, and it will not be allowed if it's just a phoenixing product—in other words, a similar product tinkering with the edges, getting rid of the old product and saying, 'Now you have only this choice and we have to increase the premium.'

On top of this, the bill requires no additional administrative burden on medical practitioners—none whatsoever. The cost of the specialist care varies widely. As we know, when costs increase Australians lose. With access to pricing information, we'll be able to arm the Australian health consumer with the knowledge that they are finding the best quality health care at the best price they can get. We can also safeguard Australians from insurers' little secret price increases that are adding to the cost of private health cover. The legislation corrects this issue by preventing insurers from making meaningless product substitutions; instead, insurers can make submissions to the minister to request a change that decreases overall cover or even increases overall cover—but at what price? That's what they'll be looking at. This legislation is absolutely crucial, and I commend this bill to the House.

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