The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its private health insurance annual coverage survey on its website, giving a glimpse into the number of people by age, gender, and state with hospital treatment cover in 2021.
Results revealed general increases in hospital treatment membership across age groups for the year ended December 31, 2021, with the 55 to 59 age group seeing the largest percent decline over 2021 – down 0.9% – and the largest increase in the age group 95 and above, up 11.6%. The 75 to 79 age group experienced the largest increase in number of insured persons – up 36,192 people.
Hospital coverage also increased across jurisdictions, with the percent of national population with coverage increasing to 44.9% in December 2021 from 44.2% the previous year. Western Australia reported the highest proportion of population with hospital insurance across states and territories, with 53.9% of its population having hospital treatment cover as of the last day of December 2021. This was followed by Australian Capital Territory (53.4%), then New South Wales (46.8%).
Northern Territory reported the lowest proportion of population with hospital coverage at 39.1%. This was still a marked increase for the territory, however, which was only 38.6% covered in December 2020.
