Category Archives: Insurance (Australia)

Australia to ban life insurance companies from discriminating based on genetic testing results

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Albanese government says people have been reluctant to get life-saving early testing because of the risk of being refused insurance

Life insurance companies will be banned from discriminating against people based on genetic testing under federal government moves designed to encourage greater use of predictive technology in preventative health.

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, will announce on Wednesday that life insurers will be banned from using the results of predictive genetic testing in their underwriting assessments.

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Report warns 1.6m Australian households struggling to insure their homes

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Actuaries Institute report says rising insurance premiums will increase further because of natural disasters associated with climate crisis

Fast-rising home insurance premiums have plunged 1.6m households into affordability stress, an Actuaries Institute report has warned, with those in cyclone and flood-prone areas facing significant spikes in cost.

The figure is a 30% increase over the past year, and the institute has forecast it will only worsen as the frequency and intensity of natural disasters grows.

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What it means for patients if St Vincent’s and NIB fail to reach a funding deal

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The hospital network says it will walk away from its contract with the private health insurer in three months if a fairer agreement can’t be reached. Has this situation happened before?

The clock is ticking for thousands of patients after Australia’s largest not-for-profit healthcare provider, St Vincent’s, announced it would end its current agreement with health insurer NIB if a fair funding deal could not be reached before 3 October.

The chief executive of NIB, Mark Fitzgibbon, says he hopes negotiations resume, but St Vincent’s maintains the insurer needs to come to the table during the notice period and put forward a proposal that reflects the rising costs of healthcare.

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Domestic violence perpetrators ‘weaponising’ insurance policies in Australia to exert control, report finds

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Centre for Women’s Economic Safety calls on insurance companies to redesign their products to protect victim-survivors

Domestic violence perpetrators are “weaponising” insurance policies to exert financial control over their partners, according to a new report that urges insurance companies to redesign their products to protect victim-survivors.

The report from the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety found that victim-survivors of domestic violence were being denied insurance payouts when their property was damaged – including having their home burned down or car destroyed – because the damage had been done by their partner, who was also a policyholder, thereby voiding the insurance claim.

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Australia news live: Dutton says reports of WA boat arrival ‘disturbing’; Barnaby Joyce denies drinking problem

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Opposition leader calls on home affairs minister Clare O’Neil to provide explanation on whether government has ‘lost control’ of borders. Follow the day’s news live

About 400 requests for assistance remaining in Victoria, SES says

The Victorian state emergency service says there are about 400 active requests for assistance remaining, after the extreme weather earlier this week.

We’re making good progress restoring services following the severe storms in Victoria, with more than 90% of our mobile sites now back online.

Many of our network sites have back up power that kept services running after the storms hit, but that back-up power may not last during extended power outages.

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Australian Catholic church’s insurer launches court bid to cover smaller share of abuse compensation

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Scandal-plagued PwC would determine payout rates under scheme proposed by Catholic Church Insurance in effort to avoid insolvency

The Catholic church insurer wants to establish a scheme that would stave off its own insolvency by paying church bodies only a fraction of the money owed to abuse survivors at rates to be determined by the scandal-plagued consultancy PwC, documents show.

Catholic Church Insurance is facing significant financial turmoil due to the rising volume of abuse claims, estimating it has $381m in liabilities relating to professional standards payouts to various church entities, including dioceses and church-aligned charities.

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Australia must urgently adapt to extreme weather or face soaring premiums, insurers warn

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Exclusive: Assistant treasurer says insurers warned government ‘you’ve got five years’ to reduce vulnerability to climate crisis

Global insurers say Australia is running out of time to reduce its vulnerability to the climate crisis and faces higher premiums for households and businesses.

“They said, ‘you’ve got five years basically’,” said the federal assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, who led a delegation last month to insurance centres in London and Munich.

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