Australians losing faith in private health insurance
Aussies have a negative opinion of the industry.
With under a week to go until health insurance premiums rise by an industry average of 3.95%, Roy Morgan has found that the health insurance industry is distrusted by Australians.
The latest Net Trust Score (NTS) study from Roy Morgan Research has found that consumers have a negative opinion of the private health insurance industry, which recorded an NTS of -2.6%.
The NTS is calculated by measuring the trust for a category or brand and then subtracting the distrust score. The study found that Bupa and Medibank Private were the most trusted health funds, while also being the most distrusted.
“When we subtract distrust from trust, we discover that the private health insurance funds with the highest net trust scores are HCF followed by Teachers Health and Medibank Private. There is only one fund in negative NTS territory and that is Bupa. However, our survey was conducted during the week that saw so much negative media coverage of Bupa’s plans to reduce some benefits, so that result is unremarkable. Indeed the earlier research across all industries showed that prior to March Bupa was in marginally positive NTS territory," said Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine in a statement.
The research follows closely behind both the release of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman (PHIO) annual State of the Health Funds Report (SOHFR) 2017 and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Private Health Insurance Report Card 2018 both of which found a growing discontent towards private health insurance.
If you're unhappy with your current health fund, now is one of the best times to start weighing up your options with health funds offering a range of discounts and deals before premiums rise on 1 April 2018.
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