As mortgages and rents rise in Victoria, an increasing number of people are being forced to choose between housing and healthcare costs, a new report has found.
A massive number of Victorians are compromising on medical treatment due to mortgage and rental pressures.
As a new report reveals nearly one in two Australians have delayed or put off medical care in the past five years due to home loan and rental costs, a major charity is experiencing an “unprecedented” rise in people seeking health care-related support in Melbourne as housing, cost-of-living and fuel prices skyrocket.
Alarmingly, Mortgage Stress Victoria caseworkers are seeing clients skip medication, delay GP visits for chronic conditions and unable to access mental health support.
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In March, a survey of 1000 Australians including homeowners and renters revealed 44 per cent have put off healthcare appointments or care to pay their housing costs, within the past half decade.
Commissioned by financial comparison platform Money.com.au and carried out by Primara Research, the study also found 50 per cent of Aussies have dipped into their redraw or offset account to cover medical expenses.
Gender Equity Victoria chief executive Micaela Drieberg says women are making “impossible decisions every day due to the cost of living crisis” such as skipping GP visits, delaying specialist referrals, putting off a mammogram or going without medication.
Money.com.au mortgage expert Debbie Hays said that Victorians reported spending an average $3873 on healthcare every year.
This equated to about 8 per cent of the state’s typical $46,104 yearly mortgage repayment for an average $676,675 home loan.
The figure, for a 30-year mortgage with a 5.5 per cent interest rate, was based on
lending data collated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the December 2025 quarter.
Ms Hays said higher health care costs could reduce a borrower’s capacity when being assessed for a home loan, under annual living expense benchmarks used by Australian lenders.
“At the same time, higher healthcare costs can make it harder to save for a deposit, it becomes a double hit,” Ms Hays said.
Many Victorians are also going without long-term mental health support as they cannot afford to pay for both it and their home loan or rent.
Uniting Vic. Tas’ executive director of alcohol and other drugs, homelessness and wellbeing, Adrian Webber, said requests for healthcare assistance and pharmacy vouchers had more than doubled since February – although it’s not part of the usual supports offered by the community services organisation that’s part of the Uniting Church of Australia.
“Much of our emergency relief support at Uniting is food relief in order to free up funds for other costs, including rent, utilities and medical costs,” Mr Webber said.
“However, in one of our Melbourne metro sites we’ve seen an unprecedented increase in people requesting health care related support.
“We know that many people are being forced to make the impossible decision of delaying health care or going without vital medications, just to eat or keep a roof over their head.”
Mr Webber said it was important for people to seek help if they’re facing financial stress, with the Albanese government recently announcing an extra $11.7m in funding for services such as emergency relief support and financial counselling.
Uniting Vic. Tas has seen rising petrol prices become a barrier to people accessing food relief, attending medical appointments or getting to work, particularly for people living in regional areas. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.
Mortgage Stress Victoria’s program manager of social work Yvonne Montfort said health issues were a common reason for homeowners to fall into hardship when it impacted their income, although most lenders would recognise this as a reason to provide hardship assistance.
A free service funded by the state government, MSV provided legal, financial counselling and social work support to 999 homeowners facing mortgage distress in the 2024-2025 financial year.
Ms Montfort said caseworkers had seen clients not accessing their GP for basic medical needs relating to serious health conditions such as chronic nerve pain, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure and ADHD due to housing costs.
They’ve also had clients miss out on medications, specialist appointments and longer-term mental health supports because they can’t both afford both treatment and mortgage repayments.
“I think the one of the other big barriers is to dental care – we have had clients with serious gum disease who have not been able to access dental care,” Ms Montfort said.
Most banks and lenders will provide borrowers with hardship assistance if a health condition causes them to lose income.
Gender Equity Victoria chief executive Micaela Drieberg said it was alarming to see healthcare becoming “a luxury that many women simply can’t afford“.
She attributed this to soaring mortgage and rents combined with the gender pay gap, stagnant wages, missing years of work for motherhood and the growing rate of older women experiencing homelessness.
“The human cost of this is enormous and largely invisible,” Ms Drieberg said.
“For example, for a single mother trying to feed her family with rising costs of groceries, fuel, bills and rent or mortgage expenses, the cost of going to a doctor’s appointment for her is just not feasible.
“She may have to choose between dinner and her health and, for most mothers, that decision seems like a no-brainer.”
According to a Grattan Institute report from 2022, Australian women are far more likely than men to skip care because of cost – at nearly double the rate for GPs, specialists, and prescriptions.
The Australian government could make a difference by expanding Medicare bulk-billing incentives for services women often used such as GP visits, mental health care, reproductive health and allied health, she noted.
Fast-tracking investments in social and affordable housing, plus rental measures to help vulnerable women get a roof over their heads, would also assist.
“Until we address the root causes of gender inequity – the pay gap, the unpaid work imbalance, the motherhood penalty – we will keep managing the symptoms of a society that has been built around gender inequity,” Ms Drieberg said.
It’s important for anyone struggling with healthcare and housing costs to reach to support services for assistance.
TIPS FOR VICTORIANS STRUGGLING WITH HEALTH AND HOUSING COSTS:
-For most homeowners, there will be hardship options available with your lender. If you didn’t feel able of confident to communicate with them directly there is help available through services like Mortgage Stress Victoria on 1800 572 292 or you can call the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.
-If you don’t get a response to a hardship application or insufficient assistance then you can lodge a complaint directly through the lender’s complaints team or through the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
-For people facing financial difficulty, it’s important to reach out and seek help as soon as you can. Banks, energy retailers, water companies, insurance companies, and other businesses have support options available for people who are struggling, and they are obligated to assist when you reach out for help.
-If you still find you are not getting the support you need, you can reach out to your state Ombudsman for energy and water, a financial counsellor or head into your local neighbourhood house which can assist you to find the relevant supports you need.
-If you are in crisis, don’t hesitate to call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636, or any local crisis support service.
Source: Mortgage Stress Victoria, Uniting Vic.Tas
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