A Federal Government maternity report has raised the debate of whether insurers should be offering professional indemnity (PI) insurance to midwives.

Midwives have not had access to PI insurance since 2002/03, when Australia faced a medical indemnity crisis that resulted in large premium increases.

The Government is now considering a new national registration and accreditation scheme for health practitioners, but as PI cover would be a condition of registration, privately practising midwives may not be able to work.

Leading medical insurer Medical Insurance Group Australia (MIGA) CEO Mandy Anderson told insuranceNEWS.com.au the decision of whether the insurer would look at midwife cover comes down to what framework the Government puts in place.

She says MIGA would want to look not just at funding but what processes of accreditation and training requirements there will be, and what limits the Government will set on where midwives can work.

“All of those things really go to the heart of how risky it is,” she said. “One of the issues is that no one actually knows the claims experience, as the last scheme was withdrawn some years ago. It would be a stab in the dark as to what the premium would be.

“Obviously there’s a need for the insurance to be there, and there’s also a need for whatever framework that’s put in place to be very robust.”

The Government recognises that it is unlikely insurers will want to provide PI cover for private homebirths because of the high risk and probable high premiums.

The report says a risk profile for midwife PI insurance is being developed, and consideration will be given to Government support to ensure suitable insurance is available.