The Albanese Government has prioritised politics over people, as it is confirmed they were waiting until after the Dunkley by-election to announce increases to private health insurance premiums.
The announcement today marks the longest time in 15 years that Australians have had to wait to find out how much more they will need to fork out for private health cover.
In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, it is completely unacceptable that the Prime Minister would purposely provide Australians with less time to prepare for a price hike.
The Prime Minister tried to hide from accountability last week by saying they were negotiating for ‘the best deal possible,’ but clearly this was not the case.
In comparison to the 3.03% increase announced today, PHI premiums were at the lowest level since 2001 at 2.7% when the Coalition left government, a change which we were able to announce during the prior December.
The Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, Senator Anne Ruston questioned whether Minister Butler really expects us to believe he was at the negotiating table over the weekend in the middle of a by-election.
“The Prime Minister had an opportunity to be honest with the Australian public last week, but instead we saw more lies from Anthony Albanese.
“He has blatantly delayed this announcement, with no apology to the more than 14 million Australians who need to prepare for this additional cost as they already struggle to pay the bills under Labor.
“We also know that the increase announced today is only based on the average industry price, so some consumers will be paying substantially more – with less time to budget or shop around.
“Australian families just cannot afford this Government’s wrong priorities. They will always be paying more under Labor, and this hidden price hike is just another example.” Senator Ruston said.
The Opposition remains strongly committed to supporting the role of private health insurance in our healthcare system. During our time in Government, we supported the more than 14 million Australians to take out private health cover at the lowest rate in more than twenty years.