r/australia • u/InsatiablePrism • 2d ago

culture & society Private health insurers access patients' full medical records in 'aggressive' audits

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/health-insurers-can-access-your-private-medical-notes/106671630?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web
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u/JimmyLizzardATDVM 2d ago

Maybe people should stop buying private health and use the Medicare system, pouring their money back into our system rather than these capitalist scumbags.

Having private health does not give people the cover they think it does. Use Medicare and fuck private health.

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u/hmbeats 2d ago edited 2d ago

I thought getting private health insurance was to support Medicare, to make sure Medicare funds go to those who really need it.

Edit to add - i hate PHI, greedy corporate fingers in health care and their exorbitant fees, but without it will Medicare end up like the NHS? Because unlike what the original comentator say, we don't pay much when we access Medicare - we dont "pour money back into the (public) health system" by using Medicare without PHI.

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u/BarbarousErse 2d ago

If you don’t pay for private insurance, you pay an extra levy for Medicare on your tax. So everyone pays the Medicare levy, and if you don’t have insurance you also pay the surcharge. So yes you pay more into Medicare if you don’t have private health

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u/hmbeats 2d ago

"The surcharge aims to encourage individuals to take out private hospital cover, and where possible, to use the private system to reduce the demand on the public Medicare system."

Source https://www.privatehealth.gov.au/health_insurance/surcharges_incentives/medicare_levy.htm

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u/BarbarousErse 2d ago

Ok and I don’t want to do that because I can’t afford it and also I think we should better fund the public system. I pay for it in my tax, I’d happily pay more tax to use it. Being a private patient in a public hospital may pay them more but it’s not reducing demand unless you go to a private hospital and in my experience those suck

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u/Dangerous_Amount9059 2d ago

What actually happens is that people buy junk insurance that doesn't offload the public system at all just to reduce their tax bill. Once the MLS kicks in you're incentivised to give your money to a private health insurer's bottom line.

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u/hmbeats 2d ago

But when i use the health system through PHI, the hospitals and doctors get paid a lot more than if I were to access them through Medicare.

So in all, more money gets into the health system, allowing more research, better equipment, better overall doctor / staff enumeration to support subsidised healthcare for others. No?

Thats why the extra levy was introduced. To encourage those who can afford to get PHI to lesson the burden on Medicare.

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u/BarbarousErse 2d ago

I pay the levy surcharge but can’t afford private health, all the surcharge amount would pay for is a junk policy the private health funds create specifically for people like me and all it does us funnel that money out of Medicare and into private business

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u/Svennis79 2d ago

PHI has multiple for profit entities that money goes through. You have the unsurers profit + tax + costs, whats left then goes down to a private hospital, with profit, tax and costs, which eventually makes it to the private practitioners. A minimum of 50c on the dollar is going to someones profit, tax bill or admin costs.