The geographic distribution of private health insurance in Australia in 2001

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 ratio ³	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