Your premiums are going up, and the Senate wants answers

It seems enough is enough for the Senate as the increasing Private Health Care premiums have led them to put the CEOs on notice.

The government did approve a near 5 per cent last month which sees some with Private Health Care out of pocket more than $200 a year.

The area of interest of the Senate is that these companies are constantly stating that they need to raise the rates but the CEO’s pocket multimillion dollar salaries.  Some reports say that some of the CEOs make more than $13 million a year.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari who has called for the investigation told the ABC, “I believe we should be looking at that power. It will ultimately be the committee in the Senate’s decision”.  Mr Dastyari added, “My view is you should have to front and have to explain.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt gave his actions on the situation on Lateline stating, “I’ve written to [the] independent pricing authority”.  He added, “Even though there will be some resistance from some who have their own interests, which they’re entitled to defend, we will get better value and as a consequence better outcomes for patients.”

The consequence might be that if the prices rise too much more and more will drop out which will force the Private Health companies to try to recoup those losses elsewhere while more people would be putting pressure on the public system.

Do you have Private Health Care? Are the premiums making it less attractive?