More Australians have private health insurance – APRA

Australians are increasingly covered by private health insurance for hospital treatment, data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has shown.

Forty five percent of Australians, or 11.8 million people, had private health insurance coverage for hospital treatment as of December 2022, a 2.17% increase on 2021’s 11.6 million. This is according to data released from APRA’s Private Health Insurance Coverage Survey.

There has been a continuous uptick in Australians obtaining the cover since 2020, the year in which COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, according to APRA’s data. Prior to this, in 2019 and 2018, the percentage of Australians covered had dipped slightly year-on-year, by 0.08% and 0.57% respectively.

In terms of proportion of people covered, the state of Western Australia led with 54% of the population having private health insurance for hospital coverage. More than 1.5 million people in the state had cover in place.

The Northern Territory was at the back of the pack where it came to proportion of people availing of the coverage, with 39.6% (representing 99,003 people) of the population covered.

Which states had the highest permeation of private health insurance for hospital treatment as a percentage of population?

• Western Australia – 54.2% (1.53 million people)
• Australian Capital Territory – 53.7% (248,000 people)
• New South Wales – 46.7% (3.85 million people)
• South Australia – 44.5% (817,000 people)
• Victoria – 42.3% (2.83 million people)
• Tasmania – 41.3% (236,000 people)
• Queensland – 41%% (2.2 million people)
• Northern Territory – 39.6% (99,000 people)