Why it is time to review the role of private health insurance in Australia

Abstract

TO THE EDITOR: Since its introduction on 1 January 1999, the 30% rebate has been the subject of much misleading comment by the opponents of the private health sector. A recent addition to these ranks was published in the first edition for 2004 of Australian Health Review (Segal 2004). There is no real attempt at balance in the article. While Segal argues that the rebate has failed to take the pressure off public hospitals, we are not told, for example, that almost one-in-five extra patients admitted by public hospitals in the three years to 2002-03 were actually private patients! Similarly, the article is littered with generalisations and, in some cases, misleading or completely incorrect statements, such as ?Private hospitals do not offer a complete hospital service . . .? Even a cursory examination of the available national data indicates that private hospitals provide services in all but 7 of the 654 diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) recorded. Private hospitals perform all the remaining 647 DRGs.