Health insurer nib is backing the Abbott government’s planned GP co-payment, but says controversy over the move is drowning out more important debates about the future of the healthcare sector.
Chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon said the proposed $7 co-payment was necessary as the government looked to rein in growing healthcare spending.
“There absolutely should be a co-payment,” he told AAP.
“The government can’t support this escalation in healthcare spending. Citizens need to make a greater contribution to their lifetime healthcare costs.”
But he said the controversy surrounding the proposed payment, which has met with strong opposition in the Senate, had made it difficult to discuss broader problems in the healthcare sector.
“The unfortunate thing about it that the whole healthcare debate has been hijacked by this issue. There are more significant issues that we should be dealing with,” he said.
“There are opportunities in the healthcare system to reduce the level of unnecessary hospital utilisation and costs and unfortunately any discourse around those opportunities is being drowned out by discussions around things like GP co-pays.”
The insurer is looking to work more closely with GPs to reduce the number of unnecessary hospitalisations among its policy holders, which it says is pushing insurance premiums higher.
Mr Fitzgibbon did not expect the proposed payment to have any impact on nib’s business.
His comments came as nib reported a four per cent rise in full year profit to $69.9 million.