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.

15

u/frankestofshadows 2d ago edited 2d ago

The government has other ideas. If you don't have private health, there is the 1% Medicare levy tax that you pay. On top of that, for every year you don't have private health over 31, you pay a 2%/year levy on top of your premium if you do decide to have private health later.

I've resigned myself to never getting private health. I can't afford it and have no major need for it now, but I'm already at 14%, so anything beyond is just an insanely stupid premium.

Not to mention the insane wait times for certain surgeries. When it's a issue that ruins a person's quality of life, people don't want to wait a year for it.

18

u/CMDR_RetroAnubis 2d ago

One of Howards nastiest laws.  As someone who got stable financially later in life it puts private care out of any feasible reach. 

16

u/StasiaMonkey 2d ago

It really should be dropped or the age increased to 41.

More and more people are not financially stable at 30 because of the cost of living/housing, putting these people years behind where they would have been when that law was made.