'Short-changing' by insurers not helping

APHA's Letter to the Editor of The Mercury correcting false assertions.

ASSERTIONS by the health insurance lobby in 'Doctors appeal for $2 million to keep The Hobart Clinic open and protect mental health care' (The Mercury, 9/10/25) are deceptive.

The claim THC only "deal with moderate conditions" is wrong. Patients with severe mental health illness are treated on-site.

That Melbourne-based physiatrists work at the hospital is not a negative. Where they live is immaterial. Where they provide care is vital. Isn't it better for patients to be treated locally than in Melbourne?

The insurers say in-patients can be treated as out-patients. Since when? Patients requiring hospitalisation cannot be so callously dismissed. When patients need hospitalisation, without THC they will need to go to Melbourne.

At THC health insurers only cover three-quarters of the fees for in-patient stays. They provide half the percentage increase in fees when health inflation is 2-3 times higher. Insurers short-changing THC is why it's closing.

Brett Heffernan, CEO, Australian Private Hospitals Association. Published in The Mercury newspaper on 13 October 2025.

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9/9/2025 Do what they're meant to