Private Health Insurance information in Australia

Many people do not wish to utilize their private health insurance if they are brought to public hospitals. In turn, the public health system is losing revenues of an estimated $14 to $31 million a year. The figure varies depending on the hospital-attendance data that were used in the computation. Many of those who refused to use their private coverage are anxious about the increase in their health premiums if they use it. They want to avoid paying for gap fees or any additional payments that may be stipulate in their insurance.

Moreover, patients with private insurance are taking advantage of the public emergency departments in order to avoid paying around $80 to $130 if they go to the emergency department of private hospitals.
This led to a concerted effort of health officials to encourage more public patients to have themselves covered by their private health insurance. There is now an urgent need for public hospitals to raise revenues in order to avoid the widespread spending cuts in their budget. However, this campaign could increase the insurance premiums according to the private health insurance industry.

In truth, very few patients who are admitted to public hospitals pay their fees using their private health insurance. Only a mere 7% use their private coverage if admitted to public hospitals, while other states is around 20%. If these numbers were experience in South Australia, then it would translate to a significant financial impact. Clearly, majority of patients do not pay with their insurance, which result to more spending of taxpayers’ money. This is allowed because patients do not need to tell whether they are privately insured or not. The national health agreement expressly stipulates this condition.

The Government aimed to reach a target of 10.4% in the year 2008-09, but it only attained 7.2%. In 2009-10, minute change with the 7.3% was all the Government can manage. Out of the 186,520 people admitted in city hospitals in the previous fiscal year, either for overnight or day surgery, only 13,057 or 7% utilized their private health insurance. If only 20% used their private coverage then the total number of private patients would have reached 37,304. Hence, the Government is hoping to increase the figure by 9.2% for this year.

Once a private patient gets admitted to a public hospital, he/she has to pay an accommodation fee, which should be shouldered by the insurance. Doctors of the patient can also insert their fees. All these fees could be fully paid by the patient or subsidized by their insurance and by Medicare. In addition, the patient can even choose a specialist and can receive priority for available single rooms.

There is a challenge now for clerical staff of public hospitals to encourage patients to pay through their car insurance. Government is training hospital staff on how to accomplish this task. In truth, under the Medicare agreement, Australians have the right to free public health care. This is why disclosure of private health Insurance needs to be on a voluntary basis. Many people think that the direction of public hospitals to make patients use their health insurance is a money-making scheme to offset their financial difficulties. The end result could increase premiums and will also decrease the number of people opting to do away with their coverage. If this happens, more pressure will be on the public health system. In fact, data at the beginning of this year shows a decline in membership of private health insurance.