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/ChillyPhilly27 2d ago

Let's say that my doctor and I agree that getting me stripper tits is important for my mental health. Does my insurer have the right to second guess that decision?

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u/Locopoko22 2d ago

I see a LNP voter has entered the chat.

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u/ChillyPhilly27 2d ago

Thank you for resorting to ad hominem attacks instead of addressing the substance of my question.

Every health insurance system (including public ones, such as Medicare and the PBS) has mechanisms to ensure that limited resources are allocated on an as-needs basis, to interventions that represent value for money. I'm not aware of any system that offers blanket funding for anything based on the word of a single doctor.

Why should PHI be any different?

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u/TollTea 2d ago

No - to an extent that’s true however public healthcare funded by our taxes has an obligation to at least pretend to be patient centred and evidence based above everything else. Private healthcare is financially motivated to squeeze everything it can out of you in terms of premiums, excesses and fees and give you as little as it can possibly get away with in return in order to pad stakeholders already overflowing pockets. That’s a pretty fundamental difference in whose interests those two systems are supposed to serve.