Calls for crackdown as health insurers fail to meet target

Major private health insurers are failing to meet their target of returning 90 per cent of premiums to their members and there are calls to crack down on the sector.

Analysis of Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data reveals the industry as a whole returned 83 per cent of its premium revenue to members in the past financial year.

NIB returned just 75 per cent of premiums to patients, while Bupa returned 82 per cent and Medibank returned 84 per cent.

Chair of the Federal AMA Council of Private Specialist Practise, Dr Michelle Atchison, says “we need to have some transparency”.

“When you pay your premium you need to know what you’re going to get for it … you need to know if you need to pay a gap when you go to see your doctor or have a procedure done in hospital,” she told Neil Mitchell.

“We’ve been calling for a hands off regulator, so not the health insurers, not the government.”

Press PLAY below to hear what the AMA is calling for