Private health insurance is a dud product with the majority of Australians preferring not to have it. The reality is we should be offering better public health services. 📺 Senior Economist Matt Grudnoff @mattgrudnoff.bsky.social #auspol
Replies
Precisely! We pay a levy for health care, why pad the pockets of corporatised healthcare businesses
aug 27, 2025, 7:07 am • 1 0 • view
It's another Game of Mates
aug 27, 2025, 5:16 am • 1 0 • view
Correct. Until I moved to Australia I NEVER would have thought about buying health insurance Then I learned that the country penalises you on your tax if you don’t buy it So I got the cheapest, which gives me practically no cover but ambulances Total scam that Australians aren’t mad enough about
aug 27, 2025, 7:27 am • 5 1 • view
100% the biggest rort out
aug 27, 2025, 6:01 am • 0 0 • view
We are most certainly not in the top end & we most certainly need a better public system where the waiting list for a knee replacement is 2+ years. We have private ins as does all of my family & all the hospitals have been v good. Without it I would still be waiting for my first knee replacement.
aug 27, 2025, 6:59 am • 1 0 • view
The only reason most of us have it is because the government punishes us if we don't. Tax.
aug 27, 2025, 6:08 am • 4 0 • view
Absolutely I did quotes a couple of months ago, would cost me over $3000 just for me, and that wouldn't cover a cent of my mental health conditions I'd rather pay the Medicare surchage
aug 27, 2025, 8:43 am • 2 0 • view
I worked in public health planning, policy and research for almost 30 years and guess what - never had PHI. All those efforts to make people get it, and all along we would have been better off if the $ had gone straight into the public health system. Don’t get me started …
aug 27, 2025, 7:57 am • 3 0 • view
Health insurance is like Legacy, food banks and other charities, as a modern, developed and rich nation, we shouldn't need them.
aug 27, 2025, 5:34 am • 6 0 • view
Why should taxpayers be forced to prop up the eye watering profits of private health insurers? Can someone please ask the government that question?
aug 27, 2025, 11:40 pm • 1 0 • view
💯%
aug 27, 2025, 6:37 am • 0 0 • view
All it does is allow rich people to jump the queue for an operation, which is pretty shitty.
aug 27, 2025, 6:12 am • 1 0 • view
Agreed. I have it, but why should I get to the top of the queue faster just because I have more money?
aug 27, 2025, 6:15 am • 1 0 • view
It's not always faster either
aug 27, 2025, 8:46 am • 1 0 • view
In my experience it's faster. But it shouldn't be.
aug 27, 2025, 12:43 pm • 1 0 • view
90% of people earning more than $150,000 have private health insurance. But at the other end? Most prefer to not have it. Less than half of the people who earn under $100,000 have private health insurance. Read our report: australiainstitute.org.au/post/private...
aug 27, 2025, 5:08 am • 27 7 • view
Saying “But at the other end? Most prefer to not have it. Less than half of the people who earn under $100,000 have private health insurance.” PREFER??? Pfft! I’d prefer to have an income that means I can afford insurance.
aug 28, 2025, 5:31 am • 0 0 • view
Everything is going up but wages. I don’t think we prefer to not have cover like it’s a simple choice. We’d prefer to not have corrupt politicians, wealth inequality, welfare for the rich, profits before people etc. We’d prefer to have a decent healthcare system and a liveable wage.
aug 28, 2025, 5:33 am • 0 0 • view
@charlesmk.bsky.social
aug 27, 2025, 10:09 am • 0 0 • view
The people on the top end don't want it either, it's just cheaper than paying the extra tax to the government.
aug 27, 2025, 5:37 am • 11 0 • view
Whereas they could just pay that tax and have better healthcare!
aug 27, 2025, 7:02 am • 3 0 • view
Cheapness is a disease
aug 27, 2025, 8:56 am • 2 0 • view
Why so many prople still have health insurance, maybe some people are forgoing wealth for peace of mind when getting older a 60yo home owner with $800k in super is OK spending $2k a year on private health insurance
aug 27, 2025, 6:15 am • 0 0 • view
My mum has always had it, she does get some return on it but most of the stuff she's had done recently has been public because it doesn't cover everything
aug 27, 2025, 8:47 am • 0 0 • view
I think the majority of people in the US would agree too. Everybody hates private health insurance except for the shitbags profiting from it!
aug 27, 2025, 10:39 am • 0 0 • view
Imagine no more private health paperwork and stress. That could be a selling point to change the system too...
aug 27, 2025, 5:59 am • 2 0 • view
Just look at the utter failure of private "health" insurance in the United States...
aug 27, 2025, 2:48 pm • 0 0 • view
As everyone eventually needs it it is not insurance but merely a savings bank with zero to low interest and huge overheads. Better to be self insured - higher rates of return and zero overhead by investing some fraction of a the applicable insurance premium.
aug 27, 2025, 8:37 am • 2 0 • view
A mortgage offset account with zero drawdown is a backup for any emergencies that occur at a young age
aug 27, 2025, 8:38 am • 1 0 • view
Private health is enemy of public health because it drains REAL resources (doctors, nurses, imaging, etc.) Reclaim private health infrastructure, eliminate PHI industry, send the now out-of-work insurance people back to retrain in actual health services.
aug 27, 2025, 1:59 pm • 1 0 • view
Trust us in America,
aug 27, 2025, 5:22 am • 3 1 • view
I never had PHI, and had a robust objection to it, until I moved to Tasmania. As long as parts of this country have utterly appalling, under funded, under staffed public health systems PHI will continue. We go without other things to pay for it.
aug 27, 2025, 8:10 am • 0 0 • view
Australians aren’t suckers
aug 27, 2025, 6:00 pm • 0 0 • view