At a presentation to the Actuaries Institute conference in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon, the Private Healthcare Australia chairman, John Hill, will say insurers find it challenging not to pass on the rising costs of medical devices through premium increases. In December, the health minister, Greg Hunt, boasted that the government’s reforms to make private health insurance simpler and more affordable had delivered the lowest annual premium change in 18 years for 2019. But the relief appears to have been short-lived owing to cost increases for knee and hip replacements and cardiac implants. A bigger cash handout is not the answer for private health insurance woes | Stephen Duckett Read more “Inflated prices for established medical technologies must come down in line with the rest of the world,” Hill will say in his speech. “One of the most commonly used implants, cardiac stents, are five times the price in Australia […]