Nation’s healthcare is under the weather

MEDIBANK Private chief Craig Drummond says the healthcare sector is playing “catch-up” in an age of transparency, where customers demand detailed information on costs.

The chief of Australia’s biggest private health insurer said everyone in the sector wanted private healthcare to be more affordable, easier to use, and greater value. “There is much more to do and we must continue to come together to tackle some of these challenges,” he said.

Concerns about the cost of insurance and questions about its value are fuelling a fall in participation amid political debate about reforms needed.

The Grattan Institute renewed debate about the sector this week when it called on the Morrison Government to clarify what it expects of private health insurance before embarking on another round of reforms to support the ailing sector.

The institute’s Stephen Duckett and Kristina Nemet produced a report that argued if private health insurance coverage continued to decline, then the Government would ultimately have to consider whether more subsidies and greater industry support was the solution. It said the question that needed to be asked was whether the Government should support private health care directly or via public health insurance, or not at all.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen jumped on the report and called for Labor’s election policy of a Productivity Commission review of the industry to be adopted by the Morrison Government.

Mr Drummond made his comments after the insurer yesterday released its latest “patient experience data”.

It showed its customers rated 98 per cent of private hospitals they attended as eight out of 10 or higher — a three per cent improvement on its previous survey.

Medibank has surveyed more than 37,000 customers about their overnight hospital experience since 2016.