As the Turnbull government faces pressure to reduce private health insurance costs, students of VCE Health and Human Development have an opportunity to weigh up the value of taking out private health insurance.

Chapter 5 in Cambridge VCE Health and Human Development Units 3&4 outlines what role Private Health Insurance plays in Australia’s healthcare system. Students learn about why we need a private health insurance sector, what government incentive plans exist, the impact of the Medicare levy surcharge and the lifetime health cover scheme.

Some of the factors they may take into consideration when completing Activity 5.6 are:

• 10,000 are people leaving their insurance every month. Is this a failure of the industry which could be catastrophic to the health system?
• Why are young people not taking out private health cover and how can the government attract and keep young, healthy people to keep the overall costs low?
• Why did the private health insurance ombudsman receive 4416 complaints in 2015-16.
• What effect are junk policies having on young people’s attitude towards private health cover?

Written to the new study design by experienced teachers, Cambridge VCE Health and Human Development Units 3&4 continues to provide the support every student needs for VCE success and now includes a new Interactive Textbook Teacher Edition to support every H&HD classroom teacher. More information on this series available here.