https://www.dailymercury.com.au/news/seniors-struggle-with-health-costs-but-whos-to-bla/3913400/ WHEN Charlie Symons’s late wife was battling ovarian cancer, the increasing cost of private health care was a difficult burden to bear. Despite being on “the highest cover there is”, the vice president of Mackay District Senior Citizens Club said he was still paying out of his own pocket to keep up with his wife’s escalating treatment demands. “Some of the things people don’t realise is, at that time, she had to have a PET scan every three days and dear old Medicare only allowed two a month – and they were $900 each,” Mr Symons said. “She had that for nearly six weeks.” The cancer tragically claimed Mrs Symons’ life in 2012. The out-of-pocket expenses were in addition to what Mr Symons paid for private health insurance. At the moment, he said, he pays about $3500 a year and estimates he has paid $13,000-$15,000 over the past five years.
Even his own more recent health issues have come at an excessive cost. “I am still on private health, but I had a procedure a couple of years ago down at the Wesley Hospital (Brisbane),” Mr Symons said. “It was less than half an hour and I was out $1800 – between the anaesthetist and the urologist.” Mr Symons said he was aware of several Mackay seniors who were unable to keep up with health care prices. He said the older people got the more critical comprehensive health cover became as their health requirements increased — particularly as they were not earning the income they once were. The alternative was going through the public health system, and Mr Symons said he knew of people who were forced to wait up to 18 months for procedures such as knee replacements. “They haven’t coped very well at all, especially in the past couple of years with interest rates dropping,” he said. “People are dropping out when they need it more and more, getting to their late 60s. They’re finding out they have to drop out because of the increasing cost.” Research commissioned by Medical Technology Association of Australia chief executive officer Ian Burgess found the rate at which private health insurance costs have risen has prompted as many as two million Australians to dump it in the past five years. However, Private Healthcare Australia chief executive officer Dr Rachel David disputed the findings. Dr David said the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority had found net policyholder growth over the five years to September 2019 was 373,600 policies, with growth of 51,200 policyholders over the 12 months to last September. The APRA has also said health fund profits were not the cause of increasing premiums — rising healthcare costs were. “It’s time for the MTAA — which represents multinational, mainly American medical device companies — to stop shifting the blame for their profligacy on to Australians, bring medical device prices down in line with the rest of the world and contribute to sustainable healthcare for all us,” Dr David said. “The high-priced American healthcare system is not the way we do things here in Australia. The MTAA needs to accept this fact.” Mr Burgess said the ‘Big 4’ health funds – Medibank, Bupa, HCF and NIB – were not passing on savings from recent cuts to medical device prices, which fell on average 14 per cent in recent years, saving insurers $390 million. “Over the past decade the ‘Big 4’ health insurers increased their premiums at a faster rate than national house prices, while banking billions in profits,” he said. “Each of these two million Australians dumping their private health cover is an extra person joining our already overcrowded public hospital system.”
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AuthorA selection of my general news content. My main round was health, however I frequently covered weather, crime, politics and general human interest. Archives
January 2020
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