“There are no easy answers about how to address the rise in complaints about health insurance, as many are related to decisions made by health insurers in attempting to keep health insurance premiums lower by making changes to health insurance policies; and by consumers choosing health insurance policies with restrictions and exclusions, in return for paying a lower premium,” the ombudsman’s annual report says. There is market failure when there is such a gap of information Graeme SamuelThe former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission head, Prof Graeme Samuel, a former adviser to the federal government’s private health insurance review, says there are about 40,000 variations of private health insurance policy available. Ian McAuleyFor this reason, McAuley describes private health insurance as “an instrument transferring funds from the young to the old”. But he says this demonstrates an unfair health system, rather than the effectiveness of private health insurance. | John Quiggin Read moreAs part of the 2016-17 budget, the government announced it would establish a private health ministerial advisory committee to provide technical and specialist advice on designing and implementing reforms to private health insurance.

Source: The Guardian November 16, 2016 17:30 UTC