Two-Year Growth Surge For Private Health Insurance, Australia

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 19 Aug 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Statistics released this week by the Private Health Insurance Administration Council show that private health hospital insurance has increased for the eighth consecutive quarter - with more than 76,000 additional people covered in the June quarter.

The increase of 0.2 percentage points continued the growth of private health insurance coverage. This means that 43.5 per cent, or almost 9.1 million Australians, are now covered for hospital treatment.

As well, a record 9.7 million people, or 46.1 per cent of Australians, are covered for private health insurance general treatment (formerly known as ancillary).

The total number of people covered by private health insurance, including both hospital treatment and general treatment, is now more than 10.5 million.

From 1 April 2007, insurers were permitted to pay benefits for medical services provided out-of-hospital. The June 2007 quarter is the first period in which statistics for these out-of-hospital services were collected.

The Commonwealth Government welcomes the positive response of the private health insurers to these changes.

The June quarter's data showed more than 4,000 episodes for hospital-substitute treatment. Most of these were management programs for cardiovascular disease.

Older people continue to respond to the Commonwealth Government's higher private health insurance rebates. The numbers of those insured in the 65 years-plus age groups grew by over 12,000 in the June quarter.

The latest statistics can be found at http://www.phiac.gov.au.