The Latest Breaking News from Rachel David

A senior clinician says they were encouraged to get patients to access any potential funding sources to pay for their care — including their superannuation funds — in a job interview at a privately run psychiatric hospital in Melbourne.

One of Australia's biggest private hospital providers says a looming change to the funding of surgical items will have "diabolical impacts" on its hospitals, particularly in regional areas.

A tense back-and-forth has emerged between one of Australia's biggest private hospital providers and private health insurers over the funding of surgical supplies.

A national obstetricians' group wants the Human Rights Commission to intervene so people are no longer charged the highest rate for pregnancy care.

With wait times for elective surgeries in public hospital systems ballooning following lockdowns, some patients are self-funding their own procedures to try and skip the queue.

It's a question many Australians are asking when confronted with their private health insurance payments these days: Why are the premiums so high? The answer is complex.

Australians are taking out private health insurance in record numbers to avoid catastrophic delays in essential non-emergency surgery, an industry body says.