Health Insurance To Rise 3.25% Next Year

The Government has given Private health insurers the green light to lift premiums by 3.25 per cent next year.

Health Minister Greg Hunt says the rise for the 13 million Australians with private health cover is the lowest since 2001 and will come into effect on April 1.

"This premium change will see a single person will pay an average of $1.14 extra per week and a family on average will pay $2.35 more a week," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

But opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King said the above-inflation price hike will be a major hit to family budgets and force more people to dump their private health cover.

"Already, Australians are downgrading or ditching their private health cover in record numbers in response to relentless price rises, soaring out-of-pocket costs and growing exclusions," she said.

Thousands of people have been downgrading or dumping their private health cover after feeling the pinch of annual premium rises and growing gap payments.

Premiums rose by just over 50 per cent between 2010 and 2016, before climbing another 3.9 per cent in 2017.

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