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My friends are permitted only two minutes to talk about their ailments

I’m a firm believer in a problem shared is a problem halved. But there are limits to how much truth one can take from elderly friends.

  • Claire Heaney

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Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon: Having private health insurance was invaluable for my cancer scare.

Five years ago today I beat breast cancer. This insurance saved me

The five-year survivor milestone is a big, beautiful one when it comes to breast cancer. And I hit it today, thanks in part to this insurance.

  • Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon
Health insurance premiums are rising.

Health insurance just became more expensive. Here’s what you need to know

The biggest rise in premiums in eight years will hit 15 million Australians from April. See how it affects your health fund.

  • Angus Thomson
Thousands of climbers come to Nepal every year to scale the highest Himalayan mountains.

Nepal travel executives arrested for scamming millions with fake mountain rescues

Fake documents, including passenger and cargo manifests for helicopter flights, medical invoices and hospital reports, were allegedly sent to insurance companies.

  • Binaj Gurubacharya
Average private health insurance premiums are expected rise by more than four per cent for the first time since 2017.

Big rise in private health insurance premiums flagged as costs soar

Private health insurance customers face their biggest premium hike in a decade as insurers face rising costs and consumers choose to downgrade their cover.

  • Colin Kruger
Melburnian Chris Kee, who was born in Malaysia, was diagnosed with liver cancer a couple of years ago.

The cancer you’re most likely to be diagnosed with based on where you were born

Several overseas-born groups have higher rates of liver, stomach, thyroid and pancreatic cancer diagnosis, while rates of other cancers are generally higher among Australian-born Victorians.

  • Broede Carmody
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One policy – lifetime health cover – which was designed to bolster private insurance, now appears to be having the opposite effect.

We have a healthcare system where confusion reigns and the patient suffers

The healthcare system is badly broken, and it is consumers who end up paying, says Dr Margaret Faux in this edited extract from her book How to Avoid the Medical Bill Rip Off!

  • Margaret Faux
Bed block happening when patients are stranded in hospitals awaiting discharge to aged care is a growing headache for hospitals, governments, and health insurers.

A new heart valve for $700,000: Australia’s most costly health claims revealed

The most expensive hospital stays include $650,000 for pneumonia and $621,000 for a kidney infection, but there’s one trend that has health funds worried.

  • Angus Thomson
One of the enormous benefits of private health insurance is often free dental cleans and checks for every family member – twice a year.

I’m claiming an extra $700 from my health fund – and you can too

Health insurance premiums are set for a record rise next year, so get in now to make the most of your extras.

  • Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon
Progressive Democrats are calling on the party’s Senate leader Chuck Schumer to resign.

Democrats are at war over ‘caving’ to Trump – and directing their rage at one man

When a small group of Democrats did a deal to end a record US shutdown, it unleashed internal chaos - and progressives reckon one person is to blame.

  • Michael Koziol