Australians have the choice of two health systems - public or private.

In deciding whether to invest in Private Health Insurance or go with the public healthcare system, it helps to understand the benefits of private healthcare and what motivates people to sign a private health plan.


Choice


Private Health fund customers have greater choice than people in the public system - from the hospital you’ll be treated in, to the medical professionals you opt to be treated by - patients in the private system have options that public patients don’t have.


Rather than being stuck on a waiting list for the first available specialist or surgeon, patients with private health insurance have more choice and flexibility.


Private health patients are also able to access a wider range of affordable healthcare services than patients relying on Medicare.


Private health insurance allows many Australians to utilise subsidised health care treatments which - without insurance - have large out-of-pocket expenses, such as dental appointments, physiotherapy and other specialist care.


Hospital Care and shorter waiting lists


Many Australians join private healthcare plans in an effort to reduce the amount of time they have to wait, and to have the best quality of care possible - in private and public hospitals.


Indeed, during 2015-16, approximately 5.2 million patients were admitted to public hospitals in Australia and 14% of them used private health insurance to cover their treatment as well as reduce waiting times.


Private Health policy holders typically have reduced waiting times compared to people relying on Medicare. Elective surgery wait-times for private patients can be reduced by more than half those of the public system.


For some patients in the private system, the ability to make claims for expensive medical care that may be required without prior warning gives them ‘peace of mind’.


Certainly, private healthcare can be the difference between having a health issue that is quickly treated, and having a health issue that also becomes a financial strain.


Recent changes


The Australian Federal Government announced a series of reforms of the Private Health sector in October 2017 which will be implemented in April 2019.


These changes will simplify the different types of coverage, by grouping different types of policy into categories that offer gold, silver, bronze or basic cover.


These different tiers of coverage are intended to simplify the plans available in the health insurance market and make it easier for consumers to discern between different policy options.


Discounts on private health cover has also been announced for policy holders between the ages of 18 and 29 to encourage people under the age of 30 to join a health insurance plan.


There are a range of reasons people invest in private health coverage, with a common factor for many of those reasons being related to the financial benefits and peace of mind of being insured.


To maximise savings, iSelect offers a comparison service to locate the best value and most suitable insurance plan for you.

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