Overview

Health Care and Insurance Australia is a major ongoing survey conducted every two years. The research is dedicated to uncovering what Australian consumers really think about public and private health care in their country.  Since its inception in 1987, the study has canvassed opinion from more than 5,000 key health decision makers each wave.

Key benefits

1. Independent research without agenda or political bias
2. Trends over 28 years giving historical context and allowing a deep understanding of current trends
3. Robust benchmarking between jurisdictions and major industry players
4. Comprehensive and user-friendly reporting 
5. Economies of syndication - which means the research can be provided at a fraction of the cost of an ad-hoc study

Known for many years as “The Bible” in the health sector - after 28 years the study has secured its place as an indispensable tool, informing strategic decision making for healthcare and insurance managers, marketers and government health managers at all levels.

Research topics

Content is driven by stakeholder requests in a consultative process that precedes each survey. We have never been short of research topics and about 15-20% of survey content changes each ‘wave’. Some of the new issues this year include:

• What are the longer term implications for private health insurance as a result of the uncoupling of the Australian Government Private Health Insurance Rebate from health inflation, effective from 2013 onwards?
• Consumer confidence in the overall health system and confidence in the public health system in 15 years time
• A broadened health savings and self-insurance section 
• We revisit the issue of risk equalisation asking whether it is fair that smokers pay a higher PHI premium - last looked at in 2009 
• How many feel ‘locked in’ to private health insurance by taxation policies 
• Deeper delving into why many health fund members are keen for their fund to operate health clinics, including GP services 
• Chronic disease – how well the various medical services are coordinated and the role of health funds in assisting with chronic disease management 
• For those who believed they had to wait too long for admission to a public hospital, do they wish they had private hospital insurance? 
• Do costs influence choice of health professional? 
• A major look at out-of-pocket expenses associated with GPs and Specialists and acceptability of same. Also, how comfortable are consumers discussing costs with a specialist? 
• Use of public hospital outpatient clinics, associated waiting periods and whether people suffer unduly due to a lack of public outpatient facilities or timely availability 
•  … and many other new issues

Methodology 

This year, we conducted the survey both by telephone interviewing and on-line. We report the telephone results in this report, which are directly comparable with results of previous surveys. Our next survey in 2017 (30th anniversary) will be conducted solely on-line, linking back to the 2015 data we have obtained on-line.