As of March 2018, more than two hundred and fifty thousand Australian residents had not renewed private health insurance, up from 182000 in the same period last year, according to a new survey by Roy Morgan Institute (Roy Morgan).
Roy Morgan's annual survey of 50,000 consumers, including 20,000 with private health insurance, is reported. According to the survey, the company estimates that the number of uninsured consumers reached a five-year high of two hundred and fifty six thousand in the year to March, up from one hundred and eighty one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine in the same period last year.
Norman Morris, analyst at Roy Morgan Institute, said: "the results show a significant increase in the number of people abandoning private health insurance. While the rising cost of private health insurance is one of the reasons why it is difficult to retain customers, the main reason is that more and more people believe that paying high premiums does not provide the same benefits as that. "
Among the consumers who were not willing to renew their insurance, 53.3 per cent of the respondents considered the premium to be too expensive, up from 47.1 per cent in the previous year. Based on the increase in premium approved by the government this year (3.95%), the renewal of insurance policy holders has increased by more than 70% over the year 2008.
Of these, 19.1 per cent were not renewed because of the overpayment of private health care, up from 13 per cent the previous year. Another 16 percent of consumers said the (Medicare) has been able to meet demand for medical treatment, up from 5.3 percent in the same period last year. A growing number of people have lost interest in private health care, compared with the cost and value of relying solely on national health care, the report said.
Some policy customers, even if they are betting on the highest premium private health insurance, are paying as much as A $14000, according to (Fairfax Media).
"it is worth mentioning that only 10 percent of all those who did not renew their insurance said that the lack of renewal was the cause of" changes in family / marital status, "down significantly from 18 percent in the same period last year."
Thus, federal government reform of private health insurance, including cuts in the cost of using prosthetic medical equipment and allowing insurers to offer discounts to young people, has failed to prevent a substantial increase in the number of retirees.
Norman Morris, analyst at Roy Morgan Institute, said: "many residents are beginning to question the value of continuing to pay private health insurance premiums. In this context, the Health Fund needs to clarify to the public the benefits of adding private health insurance to pure national health insurance. "
It is reported that the results of the above-mentioned research has been closely watched by some health funds.
Meanwhile, data from (APRA), Australia's prudential regulator, showed that the number of people insured for hospitalization fell by 10000 to 11318742 in the year to June 2017.
Rachel David, chief executive of (Private Healthcare Australia), an Australian private health insurance company, also said higher premiums and higher self-paid costs were the main reasons for the apparent decline in private health care renewals.
"the only way to reduce premiums is to reduce unnecessary expenses," she said. For example, the Federal government recently announced a reduction in the price of some virtual medical devices. But obviously we still have a lot of work to do. "We will work with government to address this problem, including the transfer of some costs to the public sector, the reduction of unnecessary care costs, the reduction of fraud and non-compliance, and so on."
Turning to the issue of fees for professional doctors, Rachel David said it had set up a special committee with a view to developing a transparent solution that would help patients with the cost of diagnosis and treatment of professional doctors.
Rachel David said: "one of the main problems facing us is the lack of detailed data on the fees of some professional doctors, that is, expenses that are not covered by the NHS and private healthcare reimbursement systems, such as pre-contract fees."
"to assess this part of the cost, we need to conduct a thorough study of patients to find out which costs are not related to clinical expenses, and then reject this part of the fee."
Finally, Morris points out that customer satisfaction varies from one health fund to another. "Health funds with poor customer satisfaction should learn from well-performing funds in the industry to maximize customer retention," she said.