The Private Health Insurance Survey was conducted by Core Data by linking from the news.com.au website during the period January 24 - February 11, 2008. The following data was sourced from 1172 respondents, evenly distributed between the two genders.
Most respondents (78%) indicated that private health insurance is important for them. Almost half of them indicated that health insurance is very important. Female respondents considered health insurance slightly more important than male respondents (80.7% v. 75%).
| How important is private health insurance to you? | |
| Very important | 40.1% |
| Important | 37.9% |
| Neither important nor unimportant | 12.2% |
| Unimportant | 3.6% |
| Not at all important | 6.2% |
As it can be expected, the importance given to private health insurance increases across age going from 25% of respondents aged below 30 considering health insurance very important, to 64.7% aged more than 61 years considering health insurance the same way.
| How important is private health insurance to you? | |||||||
| 16-20 years | 21-30 years | 31-40 years | 41-50 years | 51-60 years | 61 or more | Total | |
| Not at all important | 6.9% | 4.9% | 7.2% | 6.5% | 6.5% | 6.3% | |
| 2 | 0.5% | 2.6% | 3.9% | 1.9% | 2.9% | 2.4% | |
| 3 | 1.9% | 1.6% | 0.4% | 1.4% | 0.7% | 1.2% | |
| Neither important nor | 25.0% | 14.8% | 15.3% | 12.5% | 9.8% | 2.9% | 12.1% |
| 5 | 26.9% | 19.5% | 15.4% | 14.9% | 3.6% | 17.0% | |
| 6 | 37.5% | 23.1% | 22.5% | 23.7% | 14.0% | 18.7% | 21.0% |
| Very important | 37.5% | 25.9% | 33.6% | 36.9% | 51.6% | 64.7% | 40.0% |
| 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | |
Most respondents (70.3%) have private health insurance, but more than half of them (44.3%) want to review it. Only one quarter of respondents (26%) are happy with their health insurance.
Respondents aged from 31 to 60 are more likely to be thinking about reviewing their private health insurance, being approximately double the amount of respondents of that age happy with their health insurance (47% v. 23%).
| Regarding private health insurance ownership, which best describes you? | |
| I already have health insurance and am happy with it | 26.0% |
| I already have health insurance and I have been meaning to review it | 44.3% |
| I'm currently looking for health insurance | 13.8% |
| Haven't considered health insurance yet | 5.9% |
| Other | 10.0% |
Most respondents have private health insurance in order to get peace of mind (49.5%), a better treatment (49.4%) and to protect their families (37.4%).
| Why did you get private insurance? | |
| Peace of mind | 49.5% |
| To get better treatment | 49.4% |
| Protect my family | 37.4% |
| Tax benefits/costs | 33.5% |
| I am active/I play a lot of sports | 7.4% |
* Base: respondents who already have private health insurance, n=824; multiple options
While for male respondents 3 main reasons for having private insurance are evenly distributed: peace of mind (45.9%), get better treatment (44.6%) and protect their family (42.3%); female respondents were less likely to choose as a reason the protection of their family (32.9%) and more likely to choose their peace of mind (52.8%) and the possibility of getting better treatment (53.7%).
| Why did you get private insurance? | ||
| Peace of mind | 52.8% | 45.9% |
| To get better treatment | 53.7% | 44.6% |
| Protect my family | 32.9% | 42.3% |
| Tax benefits/costs | 31.8% | 35.4% |
| I am active/I play a lot of sports | 7.6% | 7.2% |
* Base: respondents who already have private health insurance, n=824; multiple options
In terms of age, respondents aged 41 to 50 were the ones who chose most their family protection as the main reason (51.5%) for getting health insurance.
Half respondents do not have private insurance because they think they can't afford it. More than one third (36.4%) also indicated that health insurance is too confusing.
| Why don't you have private health insurance? | |
| I don't think I can afford health insurance | 50.6% |
| I find health insurance too confusing | 36.4% |
| Haven't gotten around to health insurance yet | 19.0% |
| I don't want or need health insurance | 17.2% |
* Base: respondents who are currently looking for a private health insurance or haven't considered it yet, n=231; multiple options
Female respondents are half as likely than male respondents to indicate that they can't afford health insurance (38.8% v. 60.2%).
In terms of age, respondents aged below 30 years are more likely to find health insurance too confusing (56.2%).
Most looking for information on health insurance in health fund websites
Most respondents (85.2%) have looked in the past for general information about private health insurance.
Most of them obtained the information from health fund websites (69%) and from the internet in general (52.9%). They also searched in comparison websites (39.2%) and in the company brochures (38.7%).
| Where have you obtained general information about private health insurance? | |
| Health fund websites | 69% |
| The internet in general | 52.9% |
| Comparison websites | 39.2% |
| Company brochures | 38.7% |
| Family/friends | 31.4% |
| Newspapers or magazines | 12.4% |
| TV/radio | 10.7% |
Base: respondents who have looked for information about private health insurance, n=999; multiple options
As respondents' ages increase, they tend to use less the online sources and more the company's brochures, newspapers and magazines for information on health insurance.
| Where have you obtained general information about private health insurance? | ||||||
| 16-20 years | 21-30 years | 31-40 years | 41-50 years | 51-60 years | 61 or more | |
| Health fund websites | 75% | 73.0% | 71.5% | 62.3% | 56.1% | |
| The internet in general | 33.3% | 64.8% | 54.8% | 53.6% | 45.4% | 39.3% |
| Company brochures | 33.3% | 33.2% | 35.7% | 40.2% | 42.1% | 47.7% |
| Family/friends | 33.3% | 39.3% | 30.8% | 29.3% | 30.1% | 26.2% |
| Comparison websites | 33.3% | 39.8% | 39.2% | 45.2% | 38.3% | 27.1% |
| Newspapers or magazines | 7.1% | 8.4% | W15.1% | 16.4% | 19.6% | |
| TV / radio | 33.3% | 10.2% | 8.4% | 13.4% | 10.9% | 9.3% |
More than half (55.7%) made a health insurance purchase decision based on information obtained in health fund websites.
If buying health insurance, respondents check on the internet in general (31%), in comparison websites (28.4%) and in the company brochures (31.6%).
| Where have you obtained information to allow you to make a purchase decision about private health insurance? | |
| Health fund websites | 55.7% |
| Company brochures | 31.6% |
| The internet in general | 31.0% |
| Comparison websites | 28.4% |
| Family/friends | 21.7% |
| Newspapers or magazines | 6.5% |
| TV / radio | 5.2% |
* Base: respondents who have looked for information about private health insurance, n=999; multiple options
In terms of age, the trend is similar to the one found when respondents look for general information on health insurance.
Only slightly more than one third of respondents (36.6%) felt satisfied with the information found from their main source about private health insurance. 18% indicated that they were dissatisfied with it.
| How satisfied were you with the level of information on health insurance you found from the main source above? | |
| Not satisfied at all | 5.1% |
| Dissatisfied | 12.9% |
| Neutral | 45.3% |
| Very satisfied | 32.8% |
| Extremely satisfied | 3.8% |
* Base: respondents who have looked for information about private health insurance, n=999; multiple options
From those numbers, the most dissatisfied respondents were those who consulted the TV and radio (42.9%) and their family and friends (19.6%) for information on health insurance.
| Satisfaction by main source of information | |||||||
| Company brochures | Health fund web-sites | Com-parison web-sites | The internet in general | Family/ friends | TV/radio | News-papers or maga-zines | |
| Satisfied | 44.8% | 38.2% | 36.6% | 34.7% | 33.7% | 21.4% | 8.3% |
| Neutral | 37.8% | 44.3% | 49.5% | 48.1% | 46.7% | 35.7% | 83.3% |
| Dissatisfied | 17.5% | 17.5% | 14.0% | 17.1% | 19.6% | 42.9% | 8.3% |
* Base: respondents who have looked for information about private health insurance, n=999; multiple options
More than half respondents (54.7%) describe their research experience for health insurance as confusing. Only one quarter of respondents described it as alright (25.2%).
| Which option below describes your research experience? | |
| Confusing | 54.7% |
| Alright | 25.2% |
| Painful | 12.1% |
| Very easy, would do it again | 6.1% |
| N/A | 1.9% |
* Base: respondents who have looked for information about private health insurance, n=999; multiple options
In terms of age, the percentage of people finding their health insurance research experience confusing increases with their age from 47.4% when aged 21 to 30 to 61.7% for those aged more than 61.
Perhaps due to the high levels of confusion and dissatisfaction, almost half of respondents (46.6%) spent a week or more researching private health insurance before making a decision.
| How much time did you spend on researching health insurance before making a decision? | |
| A week or more | 16.6% |
| A few days | 24.2% |
| A couple of hours | 12.1% |
| Less than an hour | 2.5% |
| I didn't research, I knew what I wanted | 1.4% |
| Don't recall | 8.6% |
| N/A | 4.5% |
* Base: respondents who have looked for information about private health insurance, n=999; multiple options
The remaining respondents took a few days (24.2%) or just a couple of hours (12.1%) to research health insurance.
In terms of gender and age, there isn't a significant difference in the time spent on research before making a decision on health insurance.
The main sources of information on health insurance were the health fund websites (30.2%) and the internet in general (21.4%). The company brochures (14%) and family/ friends (10.4%) were also consulted for information on health insurance, but at a lower rate.
| Main source of information on health insurance | |||
| Female | Male | Total | |
| Health fund websites | 31.1% | 29.0% | 30.2% |
| The internet in general | 20.3% | 22.8% | 21.4% |
| Family/friends | 12.0% | 8.5% | 10.4% |
| Company brochures | 13.2% | 15.0% | 14.0% |
| Comparison websites | 10.5% | 6.6% | 8.7% |
| TV/radio | 1.5% | 3.0% | 2.2% |
| Newspapers or magazines | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1.8% |
* Base: respondents who have looked for information about private health insurance, n=999; multiple options
Female respondents are more likely to get health insurance information from health fund websites, comparison websites and family/friends.
When collecting information on health private insurance, 46.7% prefer to use websites that gather all the relevant information and 37.7% prefer researching everything themselves by contacting each health insurance provider.
| How do you collect information on private health insurance? | |
| I prefer to use websites that gather all the relevant information for me | 46.7% |
| I research everything myself by contacting each private health insurance provider | 37.7% |
| I prefer to let someone else do it | 5.3% |
| Use sites that give rating of products | 6.5% |
| Other | 3.7% |
Respondents who prefer to research health insurance by themselves are more likely to use company brochures, family/ friends and newspapers/ magazines as their main source of information.
Those who prefer to use websites that gather all the information on health insurance were more likely to choose the internet in general and comparison websites.
| How do you collect information on private health insurance - By main source of information | ||
| I research everything myself | I prefer to use sites that gather all the information | |
| Health fun websites | 36.9% | 36.4% |
| The internet in general | 16.0% | 27.9% |
| Company brochures | 23.7% | 6.8% |
| Comparison websites | 1.1% | 17.2% |
| Family/friends | 8.8% | 6.3% |
| Newspapers or magazines | 1.7% | 0.4% |
| TV/radio | 1.1% | 0.9% |
* Base: respondents who have looked for information about private health insurance, n=999; multiple options
Most respondents (68.5%) are highly likely to use a website that compares health insurance options. And most of the remaining respondents feel neutral about it (14.7%).
| How likely are you to use a website that compares health insurance options | |
| Almost certain | 19.2% |
| Highly likely | 49.3% |
| Neutral | 14.7% |
| Unlikely | 5.0% |
| Highly unlikely | 11.8% |
When considering the most useful features in a health insurance comparison website, the possibility of comparing the options side-by side (63.7%) and the choice of major health funds in one place (56.5%) were chosen as the most important features.
| Most useful features in a health insurance comparison website | |||||
| Very important | Important | Neither important nor unimportant | Unimportant | Not at all important | |
| Compare options side-by-side | 63.7% | 28.4% | 4.7% | 1.2% | 2.0% |
| Choice of major health funds in one place | 56.5% | 32.8% | 6.3% | 1.5% | 2.9% |
| Minimum personal information asked | 35.1% | 30.4% | 22.0% | 7.1% | 5.5% |
| Allows to sign up online for health insurance | 21.0% | 31.0% | 27.9% | 7.3% | 12.9% |
42% of respondents indicated that there are other features that they would like to see on a health insurance website. Almost all of them (94.2%) indicated which are the most important of those features.
The following are some of the responses:
Clear comparisons -apples and apples.
Accurate & clear descriptions of the EXACT offering.
Case examples of different packages eg active young person who injures themselves playing sports and what different packages or insurance companies would offer under different deals.
Clear language, uncomplicated "for dummies" language.
Every health insurance fund available, not just 5 or 6 depending on which pay for advertising.
Full cost, full listing of what is covered, not covered.
Plain English explanation of what is not covered
Gender
| Percent | |
| Female | 53.0% |
| Male | 47.0% |
Age Groups
| Percent | |
| <=20 years | 0.7% |
| 21-30 years | 18.6% |
| 31-40 years | 26.4% |
| 41-50 years | 24.0% |
| 51-60 years | 18.5% |
| >=61years | 11.9% |
Weekly household income
(Including all wages, salaries, pensions, and other income, before tax.)
| Percent | |
| Negative/nil income | 0.3% |
| $1-$249 | 1.5% |
| $250-$499 | 5.2% |
| $500-$649 | 7.3% |
| $650-$799 | 5.8% |
| $800-$999 | 6.3% |
| $1,000-$1,399 | 18.1% |
| $1,400-$1,699 | 9.4% |
| $1,700-$1,999 | 5.9% |
| $2,000 or more | 19.1% |
| Prefer not to say | 21.2% |
Status
| Percent | |
| Single | 20.2% |
| Married | 54.7% |
| Defacto relationship | 14.5% |
| Divorced | 7.3% |
| Widow or Widower | 1.5% |
| Other | 1.9% |
State
| Percent | |
| ACT/NT/Tas | 6.8% |
| NSW | 22.0% |
| Qld | 20.5% |
| SA | 14.3% |
| Vic | 21.2% |
| WA | 14.6% |
| Outside Aus | 0.6% |
Area
| Percent | |
| The capital city | 72.9% |
| A regional centre | 20.3% |
| A rural area | 6.8% |
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