By NextBestFitAllow private insurance for covered services
People may buy private insurance to skip public queues.
Draft decision:RejectedConfidence: medium · not yet reviewed
Conflicts with banning duplicate private insurance.
Review ledgerHow this path connects
This path
Allow private insurance for covered services
Creates or worsens
No new problems identified.
Concrete changes if chosen
What would actually have to change in law, agencies, payment rules, or systems.
- Allow private insurance for covered services
- Require minimum public hours for clinicians
Effects
Each effect has its own page: the evidence, the case that it is or isn't a real cost, and whom it affects.
The question it answers
Two-tier care: a private fast lane for those who can payAllowing private insurance to bypass public queues offers relief from waits and adds private money. Clinicians may move into private work, and care becomes unequal.
What it fixes
- Longer waits if demand grows faster than capacity
Private insurance lets patients bypass public queues, providing a relief valve for waits.
What it creates or worsens
None identified.
Who's affected
Who gains
- High earners
- Two-tier care: a private fast lane for those who can pay: Allowing private insurance to bypass public queues offers relief from waits and adds private money. Clinicians may move into private work, and care becomes unequal.
- People with employer coverage
- Longer waits if demand grows faster than capacity: They are seen fastest today and would share one queue with everyone.
- People with ongoing or specialist care needs
- Longer waits if demand grows faster than capacity: They need specialists and procedures most often.
Who loses
- People relying on publicly funded care
- Two-tier care: a private fast lane for those who can pay: Allowing private insurance to bypass public queues offers relief from waits and adds private money. Clinicians may move into private work, and care becomes unequal.
Other ways to soften the losses
- Require minimum public hours
Where it has been tried
- UK, Australia: Private insurance coexists.
- Australia: In Australia, where duplicate private insurance is permitted alongside public Medicare, 45.2% of the population (12.4 million people) held private hospital treatment cover as of December 2024.