100 signatures reached
To: Australian Health Funds
Nurses and midwives need a better deal!
Love them or hate them, private health insurers and private hospitals are an important part of the health landscape. They ought to be – almost $7 billion in taxpayer funds are given to policy holders as rebates for private health insurance. In turn health insurers contract with private hospitals – Ramsay, Healthscope, St Vincents, St John of God, Cabrini to name a few - to look after the care needs of over 14 million Australians holding private health insurance.
That is why 647 private hospitals across Australia have a 41% share of patient hospitalisations and employ around 70,000 nurses and midwives. Over two-thirds of elective surgery take place in private hospitals.
Why is this important?
To work in private hospitals nurses and midwives want comparable wages to the public sector. They also want safe staffing levels comparable to the public sector. We are being told by private hospitals that they don’t have the money because the contracts they sign with private health insurers every few years don’t give them enough. In Victoria and NSW nurses and midwives are locked in disputes with their employers for better pay and to include safe staffing ratios in enterprise agreements. They are sick of being treated as second class health workers.
In the year to March 2024 the private health insurers combined profit jumped 34% to a record $2.13 billion (data released by the Aust Prudential Regulatory Agency). At the same time the proportion of premiums they are returning to their customers has fallen from 88.03% in 2019-20 to 82.61% in 2022-23.
In mid-2024 the Commonwealth Department of Health undertook a private hospital financial health check after complaints about ongoing viability of the sector. Minister Butlers own press release on 1 November said:
“While parts of the sector have remained strong, there has been a reduction in profitability over time as costs have risen faster than revenue. This shows that there is substantial work for private health insurers and private hospitals to do to ensure the sector’s long-term viability.”
If nurses and midwives start walking away from private hospitals the system will collapse. If private hospitals can’t recruit and retain nurses and midwives then the system becomes unsustainable. If large private hospitals fail because costs outstrip revenue then the pressure is put back on an already overstretched public system. Love them or hate them, private hospitals are too big to fail. The health insurers need to step up and fund private hospitals better.
Tell the private health insurers that its time to pay their fair share to private hospitals so they can pay decent wages and provide safe staffing. Insurers only care about the profits they reap, not the quality of the care provided for patients (or the working conditions of those who care for them).