Health Insurance Insights: What Are We Looking For?

Our data reveals which age group has been looking for health insurance the most and what people want in a policy.

The health insurance section of Canstar’s website has thousands of visits each month. Based on the searches and click behaviours of these visitors, we can gain an understanding of what people want to know about health insurance, who’s comparing and what people want in a policy.

Who’s looking for it?

On our health insurance selector, users can enter their birth year before they start comparing. Excluding the default birth year of 1980 from our data results, we can get an idea of what age group is most likely to be comparing health insurance on our database.

Top 10 Birth Year Entries (excluding 1980)

1. 1985
2. 1984
3. 1983
4. 1981
5. 1982
6. 1986
7. 1987
8. 1988
9. 1969
10. 1991

Based on all searches conducted between the 1^st of July 2015 to the 10^th of July 2016.

In looking at the data, it seems the government’s LHC initiative probably plays a big part, with people born in 1985 (turning 31 in 2016) most likely to compare health insurance policies.

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What people want in a health insurance policy

By analysing the searches on our health insurance comparison table, we can judge what people want in a policy. The below information is based on all searches conducted between the 1^st of July 2015 to the 10^th of July 2016. The percentage values represent the distribution of usage for each specific filter.

A hospital and extras combined policy is by far the most popularly searched policy with over 75 percent of total searches, compared to stand-alone hospital or extras policies.

Hospital Inclusions – Popularity breakdown

Users can filter their options on the comparison table by selecting the hospital inclusions they desire. There are ten inclusions users can select. This was how they ranked in popularity:

Note: This filter allows users to select more than one inclusion at a time, which explains why the percentage values don’t add up to 100%. 

1. Cardiac (9.63%)
2. Joint Replacement (8.02%)
3. Colonoscopy (7.52%)
4. Knee Reconstruction (7.45%)
5. Ear Nose and Throat (6.86%)
6. Shoulder Reconstruction (5.82%)
7. Cataract (Eye) (5.28%)
8. Rehabilitation (5.25%)
9. Wisdom Teeth (5.06%)
10. Non-cosmetic surgery (4.83%)

Extras Inclusions – Popularity breakdown

In a similar way, users can filter their options by the extras inclusions. This was how the extras inclusions ranked in popularity:

Note: This filter allows users to select more than one inclusion at a time, which explains why the percentage values don’t add up to 100%. 

1. General Dental (16.35%)
2. Major Dental (12.78%)
3. Physiotherapy (10.38%)
4. Massage (7.10%)
5. Chiropractic (6.65%)
6. Orthodontics (5.49%)
7. Podiatry (5.34%)
8. Laser Eye Surgery (4.96%)
9. Non-PBS medicines (3.84%)
10. Endodontic (3.76%)

What people want to learn about

By looking at the most organically-viewed articles, we can discover what people are keenest to find more information about when it comes to health insurance.

Over the last 30 days (between the 20th of June to 20th of July), these were the most popular health insurance articles on our website (based on organic page-views only):

1. Medicare safety net 2016: What is it?: With all the talk surrounding Medicare in the lead up to and aftermath of the 2016 Federal Election on July 2, it’s not surprising that this article was the most viewed over the last 30 days. This page provides a basic summary of the Medicare safety net – something which many people have probably never fully understood.
2. Public vs Private health insurance explained: “Public vs Private health insurance explained” provides an introduction to Australia’s private health system and compares what you get with private health care as opposed to public care. The popularity of this article suggests many people are still considering whether private health insurance is worth the cost.
3. Health Insurance Sign-up promotions: Many Australians rush to take out private health insurance before June 30 in order to avoid the LHC (if you’re aged over 31) or the MLS (if you’re an individual earning over $90,000). As such, many health insurers offer some great sign-up deals around this time. So as you’d expect, this article was one of the most popular.
4. What is an MRI and how much does it cost?: In this article, a Canstar writer shares their first-hand experience of having an MRI. The popularity of this article suggests that many people are interested to know what the experience is like.
5. What is hicaps?: HICAPS is a service many of us have probably heard of, but never fully understood. This article provides a general summary of it.

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