PREVENTATIVE health care and education will be key factors in easing the pressure in premium rises, Medibank chief Craig Drummond says.
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Mr Drummond, visiting Ballarat customers on Friday, was optimistic private health insurance costs would slow but said the true effects of a change in health culture could be generational.
The average private health insurance is set to rise 3.98 per cent nationwide on April 1 in what will be the lowest increase in about two decades. Health insurance premiums have increased at a rate of 4.5 per cent above the cost of living in the past 25 years.
Mr Drummond said the health system was too hospital-centric. Medibank has shifted its community focus to supporting grassroots events like Park Run and free Ballarat training events, in a bid to encourage more people to get moving regardless of ability and to become more aware of their health.
The insurance giant was also working to cut costs by promoting services like in-home rehabilitation programs for Ballarat patients.
Initiatives like a sugar tax and dietary education, he said, could also make a positive impact in preventing chronic illness which, along with an aging population and advanced procedures, were driving up premiums.
Mr Drummond said affordability was the biggest issue for Ballarat people, like the rest of the nation, in private health insurance. He said older people tended to value health insurance and worked to fit it in their budget, younger people were dropping out – so it was more than time for the government to start making health system reforms.
Ballarat’s top-five procedures by health fund benefits paid in 2016
- $9.28 million for hip and knee replacements
- $7 million for other orthopaedics (surgical)
- $3.12 million for other interventional cardiology
- $2.30 million for back and neck procedures
- $2.16 million for invasive cardiac investigative procedures