Private health insurance gives consumers more freedom when it comes to health care. As of 31 December 2017, 45.6 per cent of the Australian population were covered by hospital treatment insurance, according to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). The APRA quarterly report shows that health insurance funds are returning the highest percentage of the premium back to members of all insurance types.
According to the World Health Organisation, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and in order for people who experience such mental health disorders to receive an accurate diagnosis and the right treatment, prompt access to specialists is paramount. Recent research in Australia, however, has indicated that underfunding has led to extended wait times and a shortage of highly skilled mental health practitioners.
The switch from the 457 visa to the new Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482) has now taken effect. Some key clauses when it comes to the new visa have changed, however as with the 457 visa, holders and applicants of the TSS visa are required to have adequate health insurance under condition 8501.
Employee turnover is expensive - more so than you'd think. In fact, a business of 50 employees can expect a turnover of roughly 10 staff per year, according to estimates from Harrison Human Resources. They also stated that the costs of hiring and retraining, as well as loss of productivity for replacing one employee could cost as much as their yearly salary.
On February 19 it was announced that the two largest not-for-profit health funds in Australia, HBF and HCF, were in talks to complete a merger. This momentous agreement could change the country's health insurance landscape and fundamentally shift the market position of these two funds.
With that in mind, what are the details of the health fund merger and what exactly could it mean for health insurance customers?
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will soon investigate more than 20 million international visa holders and foreign students, according to a recent media release from the organisation. Over the next three years they'll use data-matching techniques to identify tax avoidance, superannuation non-compliance and other related incidences.
The Labour party has come out swinging at health insurance funds. They called yearly premium increases aggressive and claimed health funds made billions in profit every year. Firstly, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority statistics put total profits of all health funds at just over $1.2 billion. Secondly, premium increases aren't an aggressive move to increase profit - they're quite the opposite.
Basic cover is an essential part of the complex private health insurance market, and a product of high value to those who use it. Despite that fact, it has come under fire in the media recently with some industry commentators questioning it's value.
Building an efficient corporate health insurance plan for your employees can appear challenging at first, but it doesn't have to be. You just need to know where to begin. To understand where you should get started improving your corporate health plan, you need to conduct an audit.
In just a couple of months, some 13 million Australians are going to be looking at their private health insurance premiums to decide what cover they want moving forward. Insurance providers have been spending the later part of last year working out their insurance premium proposals to get approved by the Australian government. You may also know that these premiums are set to take affect on April 1, 2018.
