27 May 2019 – HCF, Australia's largest not-for-profit health fund, welcomes the reappointment of The Hon Greg Hunt MP as Minister for Health. This is a welcome announcement for the private health insurance industry in light of the Coalition's commitment to making health cover more affordable for Australian's.
During the election campaign, Minister Hunt expressed his support for the role of private health insurance and the need for reform to reduce the pressures felt by the health system and individual Australians.
HCF believes the Coalition's focus on health, in particular, its promise to restore the rebate to 30 percent of the costs of premiums when fiscal circumstances improve, will help the fund maintain its own vision for its members.
"Everything we do at HCF is to make health cover more understandable, affordable, high quality and customer-centric. We are pleased to see that Minister Hunt continues to support the value of private health insurance and shares the same vision - to look for opportunities to improve health cover affordability" said Sheena Jack, CEO of HCF.
"We look forward to working with Minister Hunt to investigate the ways in which we can keep premiums as low as possible."
"This year we delivered our lowest average premium increase in 17 years. We will only be able to continue to deliver this type of result to our members if we get support from government to make the health system work more efficiently," added Ms Jack.
"We encourage the Coalition to take an early approach to issues to ensure not only our industry but the broader health system remains stable and sustainable. Let's keep reviewing issues like out of pocket costs, stopping cost shifting by public hospitals and restoring the value of the health insurance premium rebate."
