An ACT health advocacy group has called for privately insured patients to be billed at public hospitals, as new data showed Canberra has the highest take up of private health insurance but the second-lowest usage.
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Healthcare Consumers' Association executive director Darlene Cox said patients with private health insurance should be encouraged, where possible, to pay for their treatment in public hospitals.
She said the rule could apply where a similar service is not available in an ACT private hospital.
The call came as new statistics showed the ACT continues to have the highest number of residents with private health insurance, per capita, but the second lowest usage of it.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in 2012-13 there were 215,769 Canberrans with hospital treatment coverage, 10 per cent above the Australian average and five per cent above the nearest state or territory.
But only $777 of health services per person were funded by private health insurance, $400 below the national average and the second lowest in the country.
Overall health expenditure reduced by about $50 million in the ACT in 2012-13, the first time it has decreased in at least a decade and after chief minister Katy Gallagher said she was going to try to rein in health costs in the territory.
Ms Cox said new measures should be considered by business and the ACT government to increase private health insurance use in the territory, as a way to tackle health costs.
She said some consumers were reluctant to use their insurance as they could be hit with hundreds of dollars in excess charges.
"There's very little incentive. The only incentive you get is to receive healthcare faster in those circumstances and you get to see your doctor of choice, but until we deal with the cost issue people won't use their private health insurance for hospital purposes," she said.
Ms Cox said the government needed to encourage consumers to use their insurance, particularly for services provided only in Canberra's public hospitals.
"If we know that we only have two major public hospitals in town that do a lot of trauma and interventions then shouldn't we be trying to recoup some of the costs of that service by trying to get people to use their private health insurance?" she said
"It's one of those things we need to talk about - put it on the table and see what happens."
A spokeswoman for chief minister Katy Gallagher said the low use of private health insurance in the ACT did place additional pressure on the public health system, along with the accelerated growth of public hospital activity.
But she said the government remained fully supportive of a strong private hospital sector in the ACT.
"[We] would encourage ACT residents to use their private hospital insurance where this is possible and realistic," she said.
The spokeswoman said there was a current expansion of private hospital services in the ACT, including the growth of the National Capital Private Hospital and Calvary John James.
She said the government hoped to continue to support public hospital services while expanding the private sector.
