It's not an April Fools joke. On 1 April health insurance premiums are going up, again, by an average 2.9 per cent.
This is only slightly higher than last year's 2.7 per cent average increase, but some funds will have bigger price hikes than others.
The good news is that the increase is well below the 10-year average of 4.4 per cent, making it the lowest in 22 years.
On average a single person will pay an extra $1.17 a week, and a family an extra $2.58 a week.
This increase will apply from 1 April, but some providers are expected to defer it to later in the year.
Others continue to offer reduced premiums, cashbacks, expanded benefits and other measures, introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commentators predict an industry-wide average premium increase this year of between 2 and 3 per cent, which is below the rate of inflation of 7.3 per cent.
Although the increase is less than inflation, it risks putting an end to the surprising influx of new customers to the private health insurance market, as consumers cancel their policies because of cost-of-living pressures.
According to consumer group CHOICE, the providers with the lowest increases this year are Health Care Insurance, which is reducing premiums by an average of 0.09 per cent, and Police Health, which will leave premiums the same on average.
CBHS Corporate has the largest average increase for the third year in a row with a 5.38 per cent price hike across its policies.
Several big insurers have announced above-average increases, and several funds including Bupa, Medibank and NIB will delay their health insurance premium increases:
Medibank will delay its 2.96% premium increase until 1 June 2023. This includes AHM.
Bupa will delay its 3.39% premium increase until 1 July 2023.
NIB will delay its 2.72% premium increase until 1 September 2023. This includes Qantas Health.
HCF will delay its 3.33% premium increase but hasn't finalised a date yet. This includes RT Health.
HBF will increase its premiums by 4.49% on 1 April. This includes CUA.
Your health fund will let you know your policy's increase before it takes effect. If you can afford to pre-pay a full year's premium, you can lock in 12 (or in some cases up to 18) months of cover at that year's prices.
Before prepaying your premium compare health insurance policies to make sure you're getting the best deal.
Around 14.4 million Australians have private health insurance and access more than $22 billion in health and medical benefits each year.
In a statement announcing the increase, federal Health Minister Mark Butler says the government and private health insurers are "working together to achieve better value for policyholders while also ensuring the cost of providing high quality care which includes the wages for nurses and medical workers in private hospitals are funded.
"Private Health Insurers must ensure their members are getting value for their money and when costs rise they want to know higher premiums are contributing to system-wide improvements, like higher wages for nurses and other health workers," Mr Butler said.
The government's reform program includes reducing private health prostheses prices to better align with the Australian public hospital market and enhancing the Medical Costs Finder, a tool to improve transparency of out-of-pocket costs for medical specialist services and provide greater confidence about the value of private healthcare.
Private health insurer's average premium price changes are available online.
The pandemic lifted insurers' bottom-lines, with fewer consumers making claims due to a pause on elective surgery, helping the sector to build up large cash reserves.
Private health insurers are also enjoying a membership rebound, as a blowout in public hospital wait times pushes more Australians into the system.
The Australian Financial Review reports about 758,000 Australians have signed up for private health insurance since September 2020 and private health insurers have witnessed nine consecutive quarters of membership growth.
We are calling for reforms that put a brake on rising health care costs to help older Australians retain health insurance and the best possible medical services.
Our priorities
Mandatory publication of specialist fees: all specialists should be required to publish their fees and GPs required to inform patients about choice when referring them to specialists.
Freeze private health insurance premiums to no more than CPI - if increases are held to no more than inflation, health costs and premiums won't escalate at odds with other parts of the economy.
Join the Health Costs campaign below.
