“Australians are paying more for their private health insurance and getting less value in return,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
she said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen that private health insurance premiums are going up and up, which will be no surprise to Australians and sadly, our coverage is being narrowed.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Danielle McMullen says insurers need to make their products more transparent. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
The AMA report showed a total increase of 640,000 policies in June 2025 compared to March 2020, but demand for gold-tier policies had fallen dramatically, as people opted for cheaper policies that excluded a lot of services such as no-wait maternity or psychiatric care.<\/p>\n
The report also found gold-tier policies were susceptible to “phoenixing” \u2014 when insurers close an existing policy and replace it with a nearly identical one at a higher price.<\/p>\n
“We’re seeing Australians \u2026 turn to those lower tier products, which means they’re probably not covered for the health issues they may in fact face,” Dr McMullen said.<\/p>\n
“It’s more important than ever that people read the fine print of their insurance policy but \u2026 insurers need to work harder to make their products more transparent.”<\/p>\n
Is private health insurance worth it?<\/a><\/p>\n Are you better off buying cover or relying entirely on the public system? Let’s do the maths.\u00a0<\/p>\n Same procedure, different benefits<\/p>\n The report also uncovered major variations in the amount insurers would pay for the same procedure.<\/p>\n For example, the AMA found an almost 30 per cent variation in the benefits paid between two insurers for an uncomplicated childbirth.<\/p>\n The amount an insurer will cover can also vary depending on where you live, with data showing someone in New South Wales would get a higher benefit than someone in South Australia for cataract surgery this year.<\/p>\n