Over 50s outraged over increase to health insurance premiums

The FiftyUp Club are demanding 'more honesty' from the government and health insurers in the hope it will give consumers a better deal.

The club’s demand comes after recent increases in private health insurance premiums revealed consumers aged over 50 years old have been hit with an average increase of 9.8 per cent.

"Obviously, as they get into their older years, things are going to go wrong, we need them to know, we need the government to tell them how much their insurance is going up every year,” Chairman of the FiftyUp Club John Mangos said.

Consumers who fall into the over-50 age bracket could now have had their health insurance premium increased by as much as 13.7 per cent in the past year.

"Mine went up 9.4 per cent and I didn't even know it,” Mr Mangos said,

“I got the extra bill, but I want the transparency so that I can shop around for one that went up less.”

The FiftyUp Club has launched a national petition hoping to put pressure on the government and, in turn, health providers.

"Clearly people over 50 are going to be bigger users of the health care system, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they should be paying more for health care,” Choice Media’s Tom godfrey said.

“At the end of the day, the top level cover policy is a top level cover policy, regardless of how old you are."

John Mangos is calling for people to join his petition.

"Join the petition so we can drop a big bunch of paper on the health minister’s desk, and say ‘do something about it’," he said.