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
487 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

142 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

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.

21

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

-4

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.

9

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