As a middle-grade emergency department doctor in the Public Health at the coalface of the Australian health care system. I see the injured, sick, poor and dying on a daily basis and unlike BUPA is purporting us as 'ravenous', 'greedy' and 'unscrupulous'. I and most public health sectors don't receive a dime from them or even earn a six-figure salary!!! Even when I become an emergency specialist nor do the majority of trainees that will look after you in a public hospital. Yes some specialists will get a significant cut but this is how they are paid and on the whole, we earn far less than what you would expect and many have six figure university debts. I really didn't know about these issues with BUPA until I had Susan 68 year old lady come into hospital at 2am last friday morning who was becoming unwell with fevers, severe lower abdominal pain and 4-6 kg of weight loss in the last few days prior to presenting to hospital. After telling her she needed to come into hospital. She told me she was a pensioner, living with her elderly husband trying to make ends meet and recently had been slugged unknowingly by BUPA $500 for a short hospital admission and was still struggling to make ends meet let alone still pay private health insurance. Susan asked me if I would know how much she was going to be charged this time and I told her that would be unpredictable as it was an emergency presentation and the costs or gap would be derived depending on the consultations/procedures. I tried to help relieve her anxiety by telling her that the vast, vast majority of specialists in the hospital charge no gap to no avail, but still advised her to contact BUPA. Usually, our default is to tell patients to go private. Mainly because 1 in 5 patients are admitted this way and up to 10% of hospital funding comes from such. But after finding out about the upcoming changes, with her already previously being slugged $500 recently by BUPA and not wanting Susan to be in the same predicament I told her to go public or change providers. Despite crying about the serious financial hardships she was having, I held her hand and tried to persuade her to be admitted as a public patient or speak to the Surgeon that morning about no Gap options/to explain her financial situation as well as a social worker we could help organise. But like many people of her generation, she had unwavering loyalty to BUPA (previously MBF) and went private telling me she just 'wanted the best' and still trusted them despite the recent hidden charges. The cost of healthcare should be the last thing someone like Susan thinks about when using their private healthcare in Australia, unlike in America were severe out of pocket expenses not covered by insurance are the norm unless you or your employer have 'top cover'. But at this rate or if other insurers follow suit we will have a further fragmented public/private healthcare system interface and start the process of being 'Americanised'. Soon after I read about the impending changes I realised many Australians, well the 3.98 million Australians least to say that are covered by BUPA may face a similar predicament. If you or a loved one has an unplanned or emergency presentation and elect as Susan did to go private you will be slugged for additional charges not covered by BUPA's 25% of MBS and Medicare's funding. By paying specialists only 25% of the rate, they are forced to pass on the costs even though most specialists currently elect to charge the patient no gap. This fundamental right or Autonomy of choosing your specialist or using your own health coverage to help the public system (which was designed this way) and the ability of no gap coverage will be taken away by BUPA depriving the healthcare system of hundreds of millions of dollars. BUPA is currently one of the world's largest health insurers with over 32 million customers in 190 countries. Yet made the vast majority of its record half Billlion dollar (AUD) half year profit from 4 million Australian's in the first 6 months of 2017 alone! All whilst increasing premiums by 3.95%, downgrading policies, forcing members to go to BUPA dental/optical/aged care facility to get a better rebate, slashing benefits to 'pass on savings' affecting over 700,000 policy holders! You be the judge, please continue to sign and share this petition.