Thousands of Australians downgrade private health insurance
Written by admin on October 16, 2024
Hundreds of thousands of Australians are downgrading their private health insurance as the cost-of-living crisis continues to cripple the country.
Despite a steady increase in people choosing private health insurance, new government data suggests between 2020 and 2023, more than 400,000 people dropped from their gold health insurance coverage to a lower level, with Australians increasingly choosing a silver or bronze tier.
According to Private Healthcare Australia (PHA), a representative body for private insurers, more than 216,000 policies were downgraded in the first half of 2024.
Moreover, revenue from private health premiums have dropped by $52m this year.
“People are still relying heavily on the private system because of the huge public hospital waiting lists, but they are struggling with the cost of premiums,” PHA chief executive Rachel David told ABC.
With 14.9 million, or about 55 per cent of, Australians accessing private health insurance in some capacity, Dr David said it was imperative to reduce as much pressure off the system as possible.
“If roughly half the population has it, then the system is stable,” she said. “If that starts to drop, what we see is pretty much an immediate pressure on public emergency departments and waiting lists.”
The majority of Australians who have downgraded their health insurance coverage are younger, which Dr David believes is because they “don’t expect that they’re going to need to go to hospital” and are willing to sacrifice certain services to cut costs.
“For the first time, we’re seeing hard evidence that people with private health insurance who are desperate to keep it are really struggling with cost-of-living pressure,” she said.
Dr David explained the only way to ensure pressure was off the public health system was by “doing everything within our power to keep premiums down” and offer “relief” to those with private health insurance.
