The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its quarterly private health insurance (PHI) publications for the September 2022 quarter.
The publications provide industry aggregate summaries of key financial and membership statistics for the private health insurance industry.
The industry reported a significant decrease in net profit after tax over the year to September 2022 (down 49.6 per cent to $0.9 billion) compared to the previous year. This decline was driven by a large fall in investment income, while insurance profits were flat.
Premium revenue in the year to September 2022 increased by 2.4 per cent through a combination of rising membership and premium increases. These increases were tempered by some insurers delaying premium increases in order to fulfil their commitments not to profit from COVID-19. Claims increased over the period by 2.8 per cent from the easing of COVID-19 related restrictions and movements in insurers’ Deferred Claims Liabilities (DCL1). Gross and net margins declined from the higher growth in claims relative to premium revenue.
Investment income fell from $571.0 million in the year to September 2021 to -$359.5 million in the year to September 2022, driven by falls in fixed interest investments and the value of equities.
Hospital treatment membership increased by 2.2 per cent or 256,768 persons during the year to September 2022. The growth in membership was broad-based, with membership in the 50+ age group increasing by 2.5 per cent or 114,683 persons and membership among the younger population (insured persons aged 20 to 49) increasing by 2.2 per cent or 90,073 persons.
Key performance metrics for the industry in the year ended:
September 2021 | September 2022 | Change (annual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
Premium revenue | $26.2 bn | $26.8 bn | 2.4% |
Fund benefits (claims) | $21.8 bn | $22.4 bn | 2.8% |
Gross margin | 16.6% | 16.3% | -0.3pp |
Net margin | 7.2% | 6.3% | -0.9pp |
Net investment income | $571.0 m | -$359.5 m | – |
Net profit after tax | $1.8 bn | $0.9 bn | -49.6% |
Copies of the September 2022 quarterly publications are available on APRA’s website at:
Footnotes:
1 Claims are benefits reported in financial statements in accordance with the relevant accounting standards, including claims incurred but not reported and claims that are processed but not yet paid which are on an accrual basis. Other benefits statistics in the Membership and Benefits, and Benefits Trends sections of this publication refer to benefits paid and reported on a cash basis. The DCL was raised by insurers to meet the cost of procedures deferred during the pandemic.
