Health Legislation Amendment (Improving Choice and Transparency for Private Health Consumers) Bill 2026
Senator STEELE-JOHN (Western Australia) (19:45): I am pleased to speak today to the Health Legislation Amendment (Improving Choice and Transparency for Private Health Consumers) Bill 2026. The Greens recognise that too many people in this country cannot afford access to timely health care. I would ask, has anyone in this place really taken the time to go and see a specialist and grapple with the price shock that come from seeking health care?
If you have, you know why it is so important that we tackle the cost of specialist fees and specialist health services. Specialist fees are putting more pressure on household budgets, particularly people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, who may need to see specialists regularly. Right now, if you have to see a specialist, you can be waiting months for an appointment.
If you need to go privately, in the middle of this cost-of-living crisis, the cost of that appointment can mean cutting back on groceries or struggling to make the rent at the end of the week. You should not have to choose between the health care that you need and the essentials that you require to live. Health care shouldn't be limited to people who can afford large out-of-pocket fees, and no-one should be blindsided by a specialist bill that they weren't prepared for.
That's why the Greens want greater transparency about specialist fees and real reform to make health care more affordable and to level the playing field for everyone. The Greens support this bill as a welcome step in the right direction, but knowing what specialists charge doesn't mean that their care is affordable. This bill will provide increased transparency about the fees that people might be charged for an appointment with a medical specialist.
The Medical Costs Finder currently allows doctors to publish information about their pricing, but doctors are not required to disclose information in a structured and systematic way, meaning that few practitioners have actually shared their prices on the Medical Costs Finder platform. This bill will allow the government to use data from Medicare, from hospitals and from insurers about doctor prices and publish that information on the Medical Costs Finder.
The information will include fees charged by practitioners, gap cover arrangements with insurers and out-of-pocket costs. These charges will help people make more informed choices when deciding whether and where to make an appointment with a specialist. The Greens support that, but transparency alone doesn't solve the problem.
For many people, specialist fees are simply unaffordable. You cannot make an unaffordable healthcare system affordable just by telling people how much it costs. At a time when people are already struggling with the cost of living, transparency does not cut it in a cost-of-healthcare crisis.
A 2025 report by the Grattan Institute found that the average non-bulk-billed fee for a specialist appointment cost some $300. For disabled people and people with chronic illnesses who require regular specialist appointments, these costs can quickly add up to thousands every year. If you cannot afford to pay these fees, the public system is often a poor alternative, with people waiting wait times of months and, in some cases, years.
Every year, 1.9 million people miss out on or delay specialist care, with almost one million saying that cost is the primary reason. This should not be happening in a wealthy country like Australia. The Grattan Institute report also found that specialist fees have become increasingly unaffordable over time, with costs growing some 73 per cent since 2010.
This is simply unsustainable. The most vulnerable people in our communities are the ones paying the price. The government needs to do so much more to make sure that people can afford to see a medical specialist when they need to.
The Greens, as I said, welcome this as a first step, but we know that these initial steps will not cut it without stronger action to rein in specialist fees. The bill also bans the unethical practice of phoenixing by private healthcare insurers. Currently, insurers are required to seek ministerial approval before raising premiums on existing products, but, with this requirement, there is the reality in the current law that it does not apply in the same way to entirely new products.
This has created a loophole that has been exploited by insurers. An insurer can discontinue an existing product and then release a new product that is exactly the same but with a higher premium, effectively allowing them to increase the price without going through the ministerial approval process. This unethical practice is known as phoenixing, and it is exactly the kind of loophole that should be closed.
This bill will require ministerial approval of pricing of new products as well as existing products, helping prevent this type of unethical practice. The Greens strongly support cracking down on private health insurers essentially engaging in price gouging. People should not be ripped off by corporations looking for a way around the rules.
The government must protect Australians from greedy corporations trying to rip them off, and this is a step in the right direction. But we do also need to look at the bigger picture. The Greens believe government is still putting far too much public money into the pockets of private health insurers, while our public system is crying out for investment.
Every dollar that is spent subsidising private health insurance is a dollar that could be invested in our public hospitals—in Medicare, in making health care more accessible for everyone. The government should be taxing big corporations fairly, ending taxpayer funded subsidies of private health insurance and properly funding universal public health care. It is clear to anybody willing to look that bandaid solutions are not enough.
As health care becomes more expensive and inaccessible, so many more go without the urgent care that they need. This is the reality of what people are getting from this Labor government. If it were serious about bringing down healthcare costs, this government would be looking at the big reforms that would actually made the difference to people's lives.
They would be putting dental care into Medicare. But they are not serious as a government. We know that people are struggling in this cost-of-living crisis and that they are being forced to choose between their rent and going to the dentist.
The Australian Dental Association's annual consumer survey found that young people are delaying or avoiding essential dental care because of cost pressures, and, when people can't afford to go to the dentist, the consequences can be serious. Untreated dental problems can lead to further health problems down the track: heart disease, diabetes, even Alzheimer's.
It's so important that people at every stage of life can access affordable, safe dental care. But the government is just not doing enough to make this happen. Last month, the Labor Party National Conference amended the party's platform to include a commitment, the vague wording of which commits them to a pathway towards improving access for dental services, prioritising those with the greatest need.
This is encouraging, but now it's time for this Labor government to put this party platform commitment into action, because people can't wait. We need to put dental care into Medicare. As I said, the Greens will be supporting this bill as a step in the right direction, but these measures alone will not address the broader crisis that is the cost of health care in this country.
We strongly encourage the government to go further to rein in specialist fees and the out-of-pocket costs facing patients and to stop private health insurers ripping so many people off, and we need the government to match its own party platform commitments with action properly funding our public healthcare system and making dental care free under Medicare, because people should not have to choose between their healthcare bills and their rent, between living healthily and having something to eat, or between living free of pain and having a roof over their head.