The primary focus of the Health Issues Centre's submission is to examine the most cost-effective and equitable way to restore bulk-billing by GPs. The centre recommended that the 30% rebate for private health insurance be scrapped, and the $2.26 billion saved be redirected to: restoring bulk-billing by increasing the Medicare rebate for GP consultations. To...

In 2002 private health insurance premiums increased by 6.9 per cent, the first increase in premiums since the introduction of a number of incentives designed to increase private health insurance membership and constrain premium increases. In response to the continued growth in premiums the Commonwealth government announced a series of changes in the way private...

The major companies in the HIH Insurance Group (HIH) were placed in provisional liquidation on 15 March 2001. The losses and hardship inflicted on the Australian community by this corporate failure have been significant and have been a major contributing factor to the current insurance crisis. The liquidation process could take up to ten years...