New Levies and Fines for Health Insurers

Health Insurance Levies Amendment Bill 2024

1st House

2nd House

Law

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

If Health insurance companies don’t know how many people have policies with them and therefore can’t pay the levies they owe the state govt, they are now required to just guess, pay that, and sort it out later.
Minor Changes to the rules governing the NSW State Govt Ambulance Insurance scheme which is separate to NSW Ambulance membership but basically does the same thing. The rule changes mean health insurance companies who collect premiums for Ambulance Insurance need to pay the ambulance levy for the relevant people to the state govt. They will now face fines if they collect premiums for that and dont pass them on; also the levy rates can be set by regulation now instead of requiring law changes to update them
Health insurers that try and cheat the state government out of levies they owe will face new fines of up to 50 penalty units (about $5500 as of 2024)
the actual levy rates will be set by regulations, which are typically created and adjusted by the relevant government department or agency. In this case, the Minister for Health

News articles and press releases