Eight per cent of public hospital admissions for surgery and 18% of emergency department admissions were funded by private health insurance in 2016-17.

An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report, Admitted patient care 2016–17: Australian hospital statistics, also found that people were using private hospitals less while admissions to public hospitals were rising. Overnight private hospital stays fell by an average of 0.9% per capita, the report shows.

“Overall admissions rose by 4.3% on average each year for public hospitals and 3.6% for private hospitals between 2012-13 and 2016-17,” institute spokeswoman Jenny Hargreaves said.

“The majority of the 11m admissions to public hospitals in 2016-17 – 83% cent, or 5.5m– were for public patients.”

The report found the median waiting time for public hospital elective surgery was 39 days overall – 42 days for public patients and 21 days for patients who used private health insurance to fund all or part of their admission.

The chief executive of the Consumers Health Forum, Leanne Wells, said she believed that meant privately insured patients were getting elective surgery in public hospitals ahead of public patients. She described that as “concerning”.

“The reality is that many insured patients who choose public hospital care do so because they wish to avoid the heavy out-of-pocket costs associated with private care for the same procedure,” she said.

“These patients have paid their taxes and their health insurance premiums. Should they not have the choice, which private supporters so often advocate, to decide between private and public care?

“The irrational complexity of the current health costing arrangements once again demonstrates the need for a Productivity Commission inquiry into government assistance for private health insurance, which we have called for.”

The Australian Private Hospitals Association CEO, Michael Roff, accused public hospitals of “wilfully contributing to long waiting times for their public patients who pay the price, living with reduced quality of life while they wait for surgery”.

“The latest data shows privately insured patients continue to jump the queue in public hospitals,” Roff said.

An economist with the Grattan institute, Dr Stephen Duckett, said the number of people with private health insurance had been “pretty stable” over the past few years.

“What’s been happening is the level of cover has been going down, so the potential market has been going down as well,” he said. “That might be leading to lower utilisation of private hospitals.”

He said the data showed there had been significant growth, however, in the number of rehabilitation and mental health patients admitted to private hospitals.

“This means private hospitals are trying to go into new business areas, which would be putting pressure on the private health funds and also driving up premiums,” he said.

With Australian Associated Press