The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has published its latest private health insurance (PHI) statistics covering the year to June 2022.
APRA's PHI report provides industry aggregate summaries of key financial and membership statistics for the Australian PHI industry. It showed that premium revenue for the June 2022 quarter totalled $26.6 billion, up from $25.7 billion in the June 2021 quarter.
Fund benefits (claims) rose slightly, with $22.1 billion in the June 2022 quarter, a 0.6% increase from $22.0 billion in June 2021 quarter. Meanwhile, the gross margin hit 16.9% in the year to June 2022, up from only 14.5% in the year to June 2021.
According to APRA, higher insurance profits were driven by a combination of modest claims experience due to COVID-19-related restrictions and movements in insurers' deferred claims liabilities (DCL), partially offset by PHI companies' measures, such as premium rate increase deferrals and givebacks to policyholders, to fulfil their commitments not to profit from the pandemic.
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The report also showed that the Australian PHI industry had -$292.5 million net investment income in the June 2022 quarter, a dramatic drop from $603.9 million in the previous year ended June. Meanwhile, the industry's net profit after tax totalled $1.1 billion in the year to June 2022, another significant drop from $1.5 billion in the previous year.
APRA explained that the decline was driven by a drop in investment income, partially offset by higher insurance profits.
Meanwhile, hospital treatment membership increased by 2.1% (235,699 individuals) during the year, with membership in the 50+ age group increasing by 2.4% (112,942 individuals) and membership among the younger population (insured individuals aged 20 to 49) increasing by 1.8% (74,294 individuals).
The release of APRA's PHI data for the year to June 2022 follows the regulator's publication of its annual report on general insurance claims development.
