Private health insurance complaints rise

PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPLAINTS:

* Complaints to the watchdog have risen 24 per cent over the past year, to 4265.

* Higher-level complaints have risen 15 per cent to 668.

* The top five targets of complaints (in order) were: Medibank, Bupa, HCF, NIB and Australian Unity.

* Most complaints (30 per cent) were about benefits, followed by information, service issues, membership issues and waiting periods.

* There was a big rise in complaints about rule changes, largely related to the removal of hospital benefits and "extras" from popular policies offered by two insurers.

* The ombudsman closed 4170 complaints in 2014/15.

(Source: Private Health Insurance Ombudsman annual report 2014/15)