Health Minister Greg Hunt has approved federal government plans to increase health premiums by 4.84 per cent, that will add an average $200 a year to the cost of family cover.  The latest increase comes as private health coverage is going backwards for the first time in 15 years, with 1 in 5 policyholders reportedly considering dropping or downgrading their cover. Your precise price rise... read more>

Today's news confirms that health cover will rise again on April 1 - this time by an average 4.8% or about $200 for a family or couple. And you're not alone in feeling like it's just not fair - 18 leading economists were polled this week on whether the increases are justified and many said no. Most economists believe that health insurance premium hikes that are well over the inflation rate c... read more>

I was surprised there wasn’t more in the media this week when Treasury's annual Tax Expenditures Statement, required as part of the charter of budget honesty, was released. Peter Martin writing for the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the 25 tax breaks that were identified, each cost more than $1 billion and together cost $150 billion. The private health insurance rebate costs the gover... read more>

Australia is a nation with unique attributes to celebrate:  critters as cute as koalas, tucker as fair dinkum as vegemite and even a ridgy-didge health system. Excuse the seasonal ‘Strine but if I needed hospital treatment almost anywhere in the world I’d take my chances here. One of the advantages is the choice of public or private hospitals and while that’s not unique the way we pay for... read more>

When it comes to shelling out for private health insurance a key reason is to avoid the perceived long waiting times in public hospitals. But we may be wrong, with new research revealing the waits for elective surgery, ie not emergency operations, have been stable for some years. If that comes as a surprise so did (at least to me) the existence of a government-run website www.myhospitals.... read more>