WA private health numbers surge off back of long wait lists for public hospitals and elective surgery

Long waits at public hospital emergency departments and blowouts to elective surgery waiting lists have been blamed for a flood of West Australians rushing to take out private health cover since the start of the COVID pandemic. The trend — which is consistent across the country but the most pronounced in WA — has at least temporarily reversed a longstanding decline in private cover that threatened the future viability of the system. Some 103,619 West Australians gained hospital coverage in the three years to September 2022, taking the total to just over 1.5 million — an increase of 7.3 per cent. That compares to a national increase of 4.6 per cent and is more than double the 3.6 per cent increase recorded in NSW. Prior to COVID, the number of policies nationally had declined for 15 straight quarters. Nearly one-fifth of all 520,391 Australians who have picked up hospital coverage reside in WA — which has traditionally boasted the highest coverage rate in the nation as a consequence of comparatively high wages. The arrival of COVID has contributed to a rapid deterioration in access to timely care through public health systems nationally, evidenced in WA by record levels of ambulance ramping and the 28,000 people waiting for elective surgeries in government hospitals as of November. Private Healthcare Australia chief executive Rachel David said there was “no doubt in my mind” that people were flocking to take out private policies because they were fed up with waiting for care. “A number of those people are joining because they can’t access essential surgery or mental health care in the public sector,” Ms David said. She said another primary driver was fear of sharing a waiting room with someone who might have COVID. “Some of the choice that private health insurance offers, including being treated in a local hospital or even in your home is what people are seeking at the moment,” Ms David said. “And the idea that waiting a long time in a very big hospital where they might catch something is really frightening some people in the community.” A McGowan Government spokeswoman pointed to WA’s “incredibly strong economy” and relatively low cost of living to “better explain” why the State led the way for private cover sign-ups. She said patients in WA “at the 90th percentile waited more than two hours less than the national average for admission to EDs” and that surgery waiting times were also shorter than in NSW, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. “WA Health is actively working to reduce elective surgery waitlists following the short pause on bookings for elective surgery,” the spokeswoman added. Ms David said seniors and families with young children were the groups most likely to have taken out policies in the past three years. “What we are seeing is people in older cohorts joining because they can’t access services in the public sector,” she said. “And increasingly people with young children. When you know there are long waiting lists, and when there’s COVID in hospitals, the idea of you not having control over who treats your child and where and at what time is motivating people to join a fund.” While there is no hard data yet to support anecdotal reports of a trend towards people waiting for elective surgeries taking out private health cover specifically to jump the queue before dumping their policies, Ms David said it was a practice being closely monitored. “It wreaks havoc with the system (including pushing up premiums) and it’s also not great for your own continuity of care,” she said, adding there were also substantial financial penalties for re-joining a private health fund again at a later date.