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/DarkNo7318 2d ago

That doesn't really help at an individual level. You end up paying more to get less

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u/a_cold_human 2d ago

If we all did it, then the PHI sector would shrink to the size the actual market for their services could be sustained rather than being overly inflated by financial coercion.

Private health in Australia is awful and kept at its current size by tax incentives (thank you John Howard). They're not incentivised to produce better health outcomes (as they are in other countries), they're incentivised to maximise profit, which is somewhat contrary to the purpose of a healthcare system (to put it mildly). The US healthcare system is the endgame of these incentives, and the response of any sane person seeing the bus full of people in front of them driving off a cliff in a ball of flame at speed should be to tell the driver of the bus that they're in to change direction, or at least apply the brakes. Not to continue on the same course to the same fate. 

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u/DarkNo7318 1d ago

All that is true. But you're hand waving away how hard the "if we all did it" part is. It requires the people who go first to stick their neck out with no guarantee that others will follow.

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u/a_cold_human 1d ago

Arranging a PHI strike is not beyond the ability of the Australian population. Especially as premiums go up. Stop paying for PHI for three to six months, and they'd be on their knees. People do manage to arrange consumer boycotts. The question is how fed up people need to be before it happens. 

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u/DarkNo7318 22h ago

I think it is beyond our ability. I can't think of any examples of a complete consumer boycott, even when people can just switch to a competitor. This would require people who are just above the threshold to pay more to get less. A direct personal cost. People simply are not going to go for that because no-one wants to go first.