What people know (and don’t know) about private healthcare

We asked a series of questions to help us understand what people know about the private system and where they get information about it.

Over four in ten people (42%) say they are not very familiar or not familiar at all with the range of treatments and services available – a decrease of 8% compared with the 2023 edition of this survey.

Just under half of people (43%) say they are not very familiar or not familiar at all with how to access private healthcare – where to go and what to ask for.

Again, half of people (49%) are not familiar with how to pay for private healthcare, such as through insurance or self-pay.

Overall it appears people do not have good information about the private healthcare system, and neither are they sure where to get it – although it seems that this situation is gradually improving.

Of those people who would be open to using private healthcare but have not used it in the past, only around half (48%) said they would know where to go for more information.