This background note provides an overview of rises in private health insurance premiums in recent years, outlines possible reasons for these increases and for variations among individual funds, and outlines recent changes to the regulation of private health insurance.

Each year the Health Minister announces the average increase for health insurance premiums following the Government’s assessment of applications from health insurers. This attracts considerable media attention. Insurers that then announce premium rises larger than the figure announced by the Minister, may attract consumer complaints to the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman.

On 2 March 2009, the Health Minster announced that premiums for health insurance products would increase by an industry average of 6.02 per cent from 1 April 2009. This average increase is in line with a five year average annual increase of 6.1 per cent.