00:00The Australian Medical Association has found that more people are taking out private health,
00:07but premiums are rising sharply and they're actually outpacing inflation.
00:12Reports found that premiums doubled between 2008 and 2004.
00:17But exclusions are at record highs, which means people aren't being covered for essential treatments.
00:24On top of this, due to cost pressure, more people are cancelling gold tier policies,
00:29and swapping to bronze and silver, which the AMA says doesn't provide the same bang for buck
00:36and often doesn't include things like hip or knee replacements.
00:40So the AMA says not enough money is flowing from insurers to provide health care.
00:47They want the government to mandate that 90% of premiums are returned to consumers.
00:52For months, the Health Minister has been putting pressure on insurers to do just this.
00:58He said this morning that they have increased this portion, but he wants them to do more.
01:03Here's the Minister speaking this morning.
01:05Now, we've seen increases over the course of the 12 months since I made that position very clear.
01:11I've said if I don't continue to see those increases, then we will consider our legal options to mandate it.
01:17He also said that he will be looking next April when it's time for annual premium increases.
01:23He'll be making sure that those are kept to an absolute minimum.
01:26So the Private Health Australia, which represents the funds, have rejected this report by the AMA.
01:32They say their figures are not based on reality and they don't match those provided by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which oversees insurers.
01:42They say that insurers are actually paying out more for patient care than ever before, with payments at a record high of almost $20 billion in the last 12 months.
01:52They've also argued that the average premium increase for policyholders has been below the rate of inflation for the last four years.
02:01They say any calls to make it compulsory for 90% of premiums to flow back to consumers could actually send some funds broke, which would obviously reduce competition in the field.
02:13They say that the average premium is a good amount of premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average premiums to the average
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