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Speaker 1: I want to move straight into dental care because a

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Speaker 1: lot of people are draining their SUPER for work on

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Speaker 1: their teeth and that is pushing up the cost of

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Speaker 1: dentistry for everyone. According to Private Healthcare Australia, the CEO

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Speaker 1: is doctor Rachel David and she joins me now, Rachel,

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Speaker 1: good morning. Yes, it's certainly concerning.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look it is. And I think one thing

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Speaker 2: that we've noticed is because the bar for early access

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Speaker 2: to SUPER on medical grounds has been set so low,

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Speaker 2: we're seeing a lot of people taking out all their

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Speaker 2: time and savings to pay for everything from dental care,

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Speaker 2: restorative dentistry, weight loss surgery, some cosmetic procedures and so forth.

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Speaker 2: And the trouble with that is is that that in

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Speaker 2: itself is causing inflation in the cost of these things

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Speaker 2: and these treatments, including inflation in the out of pockets.

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Speaker 2: So when during the previous government there was a large

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Speaker 2: amount of SUPER was able to be it was released

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Speaker 2: into the community and the rules were dropped for a while,

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Speaker 2: that immediately caused a spiken out of pocket costs for

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Speaker 2: a number of these hard to access treatments. So what

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Speaker 2: we're suggesting is that, look, we really need to put

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Speaker 2: the brakes on this because people are losing out twice.

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Speaker 2: They're paying more than they need to for these services

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Speaker 2: and more than the market value of these services, and

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Speaker 2: they're also draining their retirement savings. And I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: as was rightly points pointed out, like ten thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: out of your SUPER when you're in your thirties is

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Speaker 2: a six figure sum that comes off your retirement income.

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Speaker 2: And consumers need to be much better informed about the

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Speaker 2: implications of these decisions.

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Speaker 1: That's because no one understands how SUPER works primarily. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: we've got that ic some people using their SUPER for

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Speaker 1: hair transplants for goodness sake.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look, I mean we also know by from

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Speaker 2: our market research, a lot of people end up really

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Speaker 2: regretting these decisions five to ten years afterwards. A lot

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Speaker 2: of the treatments that we see people using their SUPER for,

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Speaker 2: you know, they don't even have a great success rate.

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Speaker 2: So we're talking about things like weight loss surgery, we're

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Speaker 2: at best. You know, the long term outcome is that

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Speaker 2: you know, probably only half the people that have that

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Speaker 2: procedure sustain the weight loss, and then you know they've

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Speaker 2: spent a fortune they've paid more than they need to,

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Speaker 2: the treatment hasn't worked and they end up on the

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Speaker 2: age pension and retirement unnecessarily. So look, we do think

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Speaker 2: the rules need to be tightened. And this exploitative type

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Speaker 2: of business that sprung up these apps that encourage people

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Speaker 2: say that they can help people access their super I

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Speaker 2: mean they need serious needs to be a crackdown on that.

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Speaker 2: I mean people could actually do that for free. And

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Speaker 2: the fact that some unscrupulous health professionals are actually sprooking

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Speaker 2: this stuff in their rooms and at the time of consultation,

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Speaker 2: is you know, that is just taking advantage of vulnerable people.

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Speaker 1: I think when you're quoting figures as I'm reading here

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Speaker 1: from the authorities, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority showing out

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Speaker 1: of pocket fees for dentistry have risen by fifty three

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Speaker 1: percent in the is it the last financial year now

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Speaker 1: you can give me that info, but certainly recently, and

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Speaker 1: that that's unconscionable. Really yeah, and.

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Speaker 2: Look it's not just as I mentioned, it's not just

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Speaker 2: confined to dentistry. Some medical procedures, the out of pockets

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Speaker 2: have also jumped by the state a mountain and you know,

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Speaker 2: people now that people have run down their savings, they're

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Speaker 2: just not going to have the money to do those things,

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Speaker 2: and it becomes a vicious circle. So then you have

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Speaker 2: more people taking out their super and then you know,

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Speaker 2: the prices just go up to match what people have

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Speaker 2: in their super account.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, Rachel, is a big problem. Thank you for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning. Thanks thank you, doctor Rachel David their CEO,

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Speaker 1: Private Healthcare Australia,