Overall, APRA’s release on the data reported “a deterioration in insurance performance during the June quarter 2020”, driven by “ongoing decline in membership, stagnant premium rates and premium concessions/holidays provided to policyholders during COVID-19”. Also contributing to the decline was $1.4 billion in claims liabilities added to balance sheets to meet the cost of deferred procedures, as required by APRA’s guidance to the funds.

In the year to June, net profit after tax fell 45.3 per cent over the year, from $1.4 billion to $760 million. It’s hardly the kind of figure you expect from an industry in rude prosperity. Which private health insurance most decidedly is not.

It makes for easy copy to bash the sector. But the industry’s legion problems and increasingly poor value for money to any but society’s oldest and sickest are as much (if not more) about keeping pace with rising costs than padding thinning profit margins.