Private health insurance is turning into a con, Labor leader Bill Shorten has declared, attacking the big funds for "aggressively" lifting their premiums each year.

Key points: Bill Shorten uses National Press Club speech to highlight the rising cost of private health insurance.

Bill Shorten uses National Press Club speech to highlight the rising cost of private health insurance. Mr Shorten has not ruled out that a Labor government would wind back or cut the $6 billion government subsidy for private health cover.

Mr Shorten has not ruled out that a Labor government would wind back or cut the $6 billion government subsidy for private health cover. Health Minister Greg Hunt seizes on the speech as evidence Labor would dismantle the private health system.

Mr Shorten also criticised insurers for excluding more conditions and treatments from their policies.

He said "massive" increases were not being matched by higher wages, which was making Australians feel as though they were left behind.

"Prices are up, profits are up, quality and value down. Australians are paying a lot more for their health insurance policies and getting a lot less," Mr Shorten said in an address to the National Press Club today.

He argued that a decade ago less than 9 per cent of private health insurance policies contained exclusions, but said that figure had risen to 40 per cent.

"These exclusions, often hidden in the fine print, mean that people are paying for insurance without being covered," he said.

"It is turning health insurance into a con."

Mr Shorten gave examples of people seeing the doctor for knee replacements, hysterectomy or cataract removal surgery and discovering those procedures were not covered by a policy costing them more than $4,000.

The Opposition Leader said the cost had gone up by $1,000 since the Coalition Government was elected in 2013.

He said there were a number of options to deal with the problem, putting the big health insurers "on notice" over the $6 billion subsidy they receive each year to provide private cover.

Mr Shorten did not give a direct answer when pressed on whether a Labor government would scrap the private health rebate.

He said fees had increased too much and argued for better monitoring of the number of conditions excluded from policies.

Health Minister Greg Hunt seized on Mr Shorten's refusal to rule out abolishing the private health insurance rebate.

Mr Hunt said private health insurance would be too expensive for some of the 13 million Australians with private health insurance if the rebate was scrapped.

He accused Mr Shorten of having a plan to "dismantle" the private health system.

The Labor leader's criticism of the health funds was aimed at big insurers rather than the not-for-profit funds.

"I am talking about an industry that raked in $1.8 billion in profit before tax last year," he said.

Mr Shorten said some of the biggest health funds had a return on equity of more than 20 per cent.

"This is an industry that is receiving about $6 billion over and above the legal capital requirement, and they are receiving $6 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies each year," he said.

"Yet despite having a stack of cash in the bank, profits in the billions and government support, the private health insurers keep aggressively increasing their premiums each year."