19
October
2016
|
09:00
Australia/Melbourne

Bupa welcomes Government's decision to cut prosthesis pricing

Managing Director of Bupa Health Insurance Dr Dwayne Crombie today made the following comments, welcoming the Federal Government's decision to reform the country's prostheses list pricing.

"We welcome today's announcement from the Federal Government that it will reduce Prostheses List pricing to improve affordability for Australia's 13 million private health insurance customers from 2017 and beyond," Dr Crombie said.

"This is a really important reform as up until this point Australians have unjustifiably paid the highest prices in the world for medical prostheses. In a recent Bupa customer survey, 87% of our members felt it was important that the Government take action to reduce premiums by reviewing the cost of prostheses.

"We thank Minister Ley for helping address this critical need. We have guaranteed our customers that we will pass on every cent saved through lower health insurance premiums.

"While this is a much needed step, we believe there is a real opportunity in this term of government to put in place more practical and achievable reforms that will deliver an improved health and care system. This means continuing to focus on waste and inefficiencies to help address factors that are increasing the costs of health and care for consumers, providers and governments at an unsustainable rate.

"As part of this we believe that the Government should commit to a Productivity Commission review of the total private health system and how it interacts with the public system - to improve coordination of healthcare services and reduce complexity, fragmentation and duplication."