Table 1

Private health insurance cover and estimated rebate payments for residents of capital cities and rest of State/Territory1, by socioeconomic status, June 2001
Decile
 Estimated population with private health insurance cover in
 Quintile
 Estimated2 rebate ($m) received by people in



Capital cities
 Rest of State
 Aust
Capital cities
 Rest State
 Aust
Highest SES areas
 70.8
 45.9
 68.7
 Highest SES areas
 679
 73
 749
2
 62.8
 44.6
 58.2



3
 55.5
 45.9
 52.0
 2
 539
 163
 701
4
 52.1
 44.8
 47.2



5
 48.5
 40.6
 44.5
 3
 373
 242
 615
6
 44.0
 41.9
 43.7



7
 42.3
 41.6
 41.0
 4
 231
 291
 525
8
 40.7
 37.0
 40.3



9
 36.3
 38.0
 36.4
 Lowest SES areas
 177
 231
 410
Lowest SES areas
 28.5
 27.3
 28.1



Total
 48.1
 40.8
 46.0
2000
 1000
 3000
Rate ratio3
 2.48
 1.68
 2.45
3.84
 0.32
 1.83
     Lower 95% C.I.4
 2.47
 1.68
 2.44
3.35
 0.25
 1.55
     Upper 95% C.I.4
 2.49
 1.69
 2.46
4.40
 0.40
 1.88

1Based on postcode of address of contributor

2Estimate based on a total rebate amount of $3 billion: allocation to SES areas based on expenditure on private health insurance (incl. accident insurance), by quintiles of socioeconomic status of area, using the ABS Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage, 2001

3Rate ratio is the ratio of value in Highest SES areas to value in Lowest SES areas

4Calculation of 95% confidence intervals (C.I.) based on the comparison of proportions (Berry & Simpson, 1998)

Source: Private health insurance estimates based on data provided by the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee (see references). Estimated rebate based on expenditure data purchased from ABS from the Household Expenditure Survey 2003–04

Glover et al. Australia and New Zealand Health Policy 2009 6:19   doi:10.1186/1743-8462-6-19
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