Hospitals use insured patients as ‘ cash cows’

QUEENSLAND public hospitals are charging for surgery that should be free, as fears grow those without private health insurance are being bumped down elective surgery lists.

The number of patients in public hospitals pushed into being treated privately in emergency rooms is skyrocketing in Queensland, outstripping every other state, new statistics show.

It comes as Health Minister Greg Hunt accuses the Queensland Government of contributing to higher private health insurance premiums.

All Australians are entitled to access public hospital services free of charge. But the hospitals themselves encourage patients to go private, offering them a private room and no out- of- pocket expenses for accommodation. Many patients are then surprised when their insurers hit them with a bill.

Independent Hospital Pricing Authority figures show the number of private patients being treated in public hospital emergency rooms jumped 74.9 per cent from 2012- 13 to 2015- 16.

More than 15 per cent of patients in Queensland public emergency rooms had their private health insurance charged, data obtained exclusively by the Bulletin reveals.

The number of public patients in that time grew just 20 per cent. Queensland is well ahead of the national average for private patients being treated in public hospitals. Waiting times for elective surgery in public hospitals are often half as long for private patients.

Private Health Care Australia CEO Dr Rachel David said patients with insurance had complained they were pressured into going “private” and not warned about potential costs. She said it looked like people with insurance were being treated as “cash cows”.

“It seems like a quick fix for state governments that are chasing extra dollars, but it’s a lose- lose – private health insurance members lose money and people without can wait longer,” she said.

State Health Minister Cameron Dick said Queensland was beating its targets for seeing patients on time and private patients in public hospitals were not to blame for rising insurance premiums.