Health insurance to cost more - Roxon

Article excerpt:

PRIVATE health insurance premiums will rise by an average of 5.78 per cent from April this year. Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced today she had approved the premium rises but said they were lower than industry expectations.

"I required resubmission from more than half the health funds and as a result the premium increases for 8.5 million Australians have been reduced," Ms Roxon said.

Health funds submit their premium requests to the minister each year. "The government has assessed private health insurance premium applications to ensure that increases are the minimum necessary to meet legal requirements such as maintaining the solvency of insurers," Ms Roxon said.

The 5.78 per cent rise is lower than last year's increase of 6.02 per cent. But it's higher than 2008's rise of 4.99 per cent.

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