The votes are in - so where next for healthcare reform?

Medibank has been committed to driving reform over the last 3 years to improve value for our customers – it’s underpinned our strategic approach to give our customers more choice over how and where their healthcare is delivered; alongside our work to reduce $60m of costs from within our business.

And while the outcome of the weekend’s election means we’re no longer facing the prospect of a 2% cap on premiums, it doesn’t change the fact that affordability remains a key concern for our customers. Labor’s policy would have been very challenging for the private health sector, but the positive thing it has done is push our industry to move faster on getting costs out and lowering prices for our customers – and that work won’t stop for us.

I’m committed to working even harder for our customers. I can give you one guarantee, we will be driving for the lowest possible rate increase that we can deliver.

The biggest reforms in 18 years are very much improving affordability and transparency for customers and I feel even more energised about working with the Government to pursue more urgent reforms.

I firmly believe that if we all work better together – insurers, doctors, hospitals, health professionals and government – we can more effectively contain private healthcare costs and ensure a sustainable healthcare system for all Australians in the future.

We will be talking to the Government about a range of reforms to make the private health system more sustainable, including continuing to address out-of-pocket costs for consumers, promoting greater cost and quality transparency for patients, tackling higher than necessary prostheses prices, pursuing alternative models of care and focusing on preventative care and chronic disease management.