Online searches for health insurance among Kiwis peaked in July 2024. File photo. Photo: Pixabay
With long hospital waitlists for scans and operations making headlines, it is not so surprising to see online searches for "health insurance" surging since 2018.
According to Google trends, interest in health insurance among Kiwis peaked in July 2024 since the search engine started recording the stats in 2004.
While individuals who had claimed on their insurance say it has saved them both time and agony, experts say privatising healthcare frees up little capacity for our system.
A woman in her 70s says she was lucky to have health insurance covering her eye surgery.
"If I'd gone to the public system, they would have only been able to do one eye, then you go on the waitlist again to have the second eye done. Whereas in the private system they can do both eyes one week apart."
Another woman, Jyoti, pays about $600 every month to insure her family. She said a long, painful wait for her husband's shoulder operation a few years ago prompted them to get private insurance.
The shoulder operation would have cost the family $40,000 if they paid out of pocket, a sum Jyoti said would be impossible to save for, which was why insurance was necessary.
"Because once you put money aside, you can use it for something else."
Yoyo is from China and is in her forties. She told First Up she was considering health insurance after a friend died last year.
"Last Christmas one of my friends was feeling unwell, they drove to the emergency themselves. The next day we chatted over a call, and then the next day I heard from another friend that they died, gone. I think it was a heart attack.
"Things like that would make me feel like I need to have health insurance. Because for some specialised checks, I can't risk waiting when I'm older. The alternative is to buy a ticket and fly to China for treatment."
She thought having health insurance could have prevented her friend's fate.
"Because they would be put onto a comprehensive check and would've found out about what's wrong with them."
But health insurance is not the answer for everyone. Consumer New Zealand investigative team leader Rebecca Styles said pre-existing conditions were generally not covered, which is why the public health system was still necessary.
"That's how insurance works. If you've claimed on it, that will go into your history and it's likely that you'll be charged more for that condition or you'll be dropped, or they may even impose a standdown period. That is the dilemma of health insurance, the thing you need it for might not get cover for."
She said before buying health insurance, it was best to speak with your GP to understand what you needed to get covered and ask detailed questions to the insurer.
Styles said insurance still had a unique role to play in our healthcare system.
"If there's a car accident, you'll be taken to the hospital and you'll be seen immediately. Health insurance is more for those non-urgent, but you need the care [scenarios]. Like a hip replacement, if you need cancer treatment or if you need these particular cancer drugs. That's when health insurance can sort of speed things up."
Sarah Dalton from the Association of Salarised Medical Specialists feared private insurance freed up little capacity for the healthcare system.
"This might be the case if we had a larger medical workforce available, but unfortunately we have got such significant workforce gaps across our health system now. So even sending work to private isn't necessarily going to ease the burden on public if you haven't got other staff available to fill those gaps when those people are off doing the work in private."
Sarah Dalton Photo: LANCE LAWSON PHOTOGRAPHY / Supplied
She was concerned that the growth of private healthcare could come at the cost of the public system when the healthcare workforce gap was currently at 1700 professionals and projected to grow to nearly 3500 by 2033.
"So if those levels of medical shortages continue, it won't matter whether you're trying to access care through the public or private system. It's going to be a challenge, remembering that it is largely the same pool of doctors who provide services across both public and private sectors."
Meanwhile, a Ministry of Health survey showed 49.5 percent of people living in the most privileged neighbourhoods have private insurance, compared to just 16.5 percent of people living in the poorest neighbourhoods.
"I think the system here is still better than the one in the US where everybody's got to effectively have private insurance and it's, you know, you would, you don't want a two-tiered society," said a man with health insurance.
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