2023 Health Insurance Statistics

Here are some of the most interesting health insurance statistics we've found to help you stay ahead of the game in 2023. We'll endeavour to keep this page updated with new numbers as they come out.

People with hospitals and extras cover

According to APRA figures, as of December 2022:

• 45.1% of Australians (11.86 million people) have private hospital cover
• 55.1% of Australians (14.41 million people) have private extras cover

The chart below shows the changing coverage rates of hospital and extras cover since 2015.

Coverage rates for both hospital and extras insurance had been dropping steadily but went back up after 2020. It's likely this was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2023 health insurance price rises

The price of health insurance increases every year, generally on the 1st of April. The 2.9% average premium increase in 2023 is a bit higher than 2.7% last year, which was the lowest annual change in 21 years. Many funds also decided to delay price increases to later in the year. They say this is a way to return savings to members, as a result of savings during the covid-19 pandemic.

Here is a chart of the 2023 price rises for Australia's biggest health funds, sourced from health.gov.au.

• Table of all 2023 price rises

  Health Fund	2023 increase
  ACA	3.92%
  AIA	1.69%
  Australian Unity	3.76%
  Bupa	3.39%
  CBHS Corporate	5.38%
  CBHS Health Fund	4.46%
  Cessnock District Health Benefits Fund	3.93%
  Defence Health	3.48%
  Doctors' Health	2.15%
  GMHBA	2.33%
  HBF Health	4.49%
  Health Care Insurance	-0.09%
  HIF	3.10%
  Health Partners	2.93%
  HCF	3.33%
  Latrobe Health	2.15%
  Medibank (including ahm)	2.96%
  Mildura District Hospital Fund	2.48%
  National Health Benefits Australia	2.86%
  Navy Health	2.94%
  NIB	2.72%
  Peoplecare	2.79%
  Phoenix	3.72%
  Police Health	0.00%
  Queensland Country Health	3.17%
  Queensland Teachers' Union Health	0.81%
  Reserve Bank Health Society	3.18%
  St Luke's	2.86%
  Teachers Federation	2.50%
  Transport Health	2.49%
  Westfund	2.65%

Private health insurance price rises since 1997

The cost of private health insurance in going up all the time. Every year the government has to approve the price rises that the insurance funds apply for. These numbers have jumped around a lot, as they reflect the ongoing cost of providing medical insurance to Australians, and are affected by macro economic trends like inflation.

Health insurance complaints

Australia's Commonwealth Ombudsman publishes detailed reports of complaints received by health insurance funds. It publishes a yearly report in around March each year, covering the complaints received in the previous calendar year. The most recent yearly report was published in March 2021, looking at 2020 data.

We've weighted the complaints received by each health funds against market share. This chart below ranks funds based on this ratio - the lower the number, the better. We've only included funds here with a national market share of at least 0.5%.

• Full table of data

Australian health funds market share

The following pie chart shows the market share of Australia's biggest health funds. This data was released by the Commonwealth Ombudsman in April 2022, and represents national market share from 2021.

Note that Medibank and ahm are both classified as 'Medibank' in this data – Medibank owns ahm. Also, note that the 'Other' field only includes funds with at least a 0.5% market share. As such, the percentages do not add up to 100%.

• Market share for all health funds

  Health fund	Market share
  Australian Unity	2.50%
  BUPA	24.80%
  CUA Health	0.60%
  GMHBA	2.10%
  HBF	7.30%
  HCF	11.90%
  Health.com.au	0.40%
  Health Partners	0.70%
  HIF	0.70%
  Latrobe	0.70%
  Medibank	27.30%
  nib	9.20%
  Peoplecare	0.50%
  St Lukes	0.60%
  Westfund	0.90%
  CBHS	1.50%
  Defence Health	2.10%
  Teachers Health	2.50%
  TUH	0.60%
  AIA Health	>0.5%
  CBHS Corporate	>0.5%
  CDH	>0.5%
  HCI	>0.5%
  MDHF	>0.5%
  Onemedifund	>0.5%
  Phoenix	>0.5%
  QCH	>0.5%
  Transport Health	>0.5%
  ACA	>0.5%
  Doctors' Health	>0.5%
  Navy Health	>0.5%
  Nurses and Midwives	>0.5%
  Police Health	>0.5%
  Reserve Bank	>0.5%
  RT Health Fund	>0.5%

Health insurance statistics for previous years

• Health insurance statistics for 2019

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