Apologies for misreading your post.
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A couple of years ago the government recommended changing the age to 25 but HCF chose not to change.
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I see from Choice’s comparison of the Big Five funds published on 3rd June that NONE of them have increased the age to 31.
The change was allegedly going to benefit to the “struggling” health funds.
Clearly not.
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The age change appears to be a work in progress. From HCI today.
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I did follow up with the PHI Ombudsman why their website search engine (https://www.privatehealth.gov.au) doesn’t have any functionality to filter search results for funds who have implemented some or all of the Bill measures.
Their answer: none of the Health Funds have, which is why the function doesn’t exist yet.
The Funds had plenty of notice to prepare their systems and procedures for the rollout of these new arrangements but only recently have they started working on the necessary system changes & premium adjustments.
I’ve been given some off-the-record hints by my Fund but no formal announcements and a vague ‘some time early next year’ commitment.
Meanwhile I’ve submitted a complaint to the Ombudsman that the relevant info on their website is a bit misleading and needs clarification, particularly as there is a “Young Adults” search filter button in the policy criteria wizard but that button has no relation to the new Bill provisions.
I received a very detailed reply from the Ombudsman a few days ago but for legal reasons am not permitted to copy/paste here.
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Defence Health is the same - I guess the funds are working out what they are going to cut in order to pay for the extension … that, and getting all their code changed from 25 to 31 - its a big leap 
One wonders what the point of legislative change is when there seems to be little concern over compliance.
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HCI has announced…
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I am not sure the legislation mandated they change policies, only made it possible for funds that wanted to. Hopefully competition might make it necessary for all, but again, it is not compulsory as I understand it - or did I miss something?
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… if only that were the case for speed limits … 130 is the open road limit, but if you want to go faster then its not a binding thing …
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It’s unfortunate that the Ombudsman does not want to make the advice public?
Respecting what has been said by the Ombudsman, is it worth considering if the Ombudsman sharing the content in the reply be in the best interests of the community -public interest?
Perhaps if asked by a third party EG Choice, @BrendanMays, the Ombudsman would provide written agreement for the advice to be released.
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