Perth, July 24: Nearly a quarter of Australians (23 per cent) — an estimated 4.9 million people — have gone without medical treatment in the past 12 months because they couldn’t afford it, according to Finder’s Health Report 2026.
The trend is sharpest among Gen Z, 31 per cent of whom have delayed or skipped care, more than three times the rate among Boomers (10 per cent).
Dental care is the first thing to go: 60 per cent of those who delayed or avoided treatment cited a dentist visit, followed by GP appointments (43 per cent), physiotherapy (27 per cent), optometry (21 per cent), specialist care (19 per cent), and mental health treatment, scans/X-rays and skin checks (14 per cent each) — the kind of preventative care that can compound into bigger, costlier problems if left unaddressed.
Geographically, Victoria has the highest rate of Australians going without care (29 per cent), followed by Queensland (23 per cent) and NSW (20 per cent), broadly tracking cost-of-living pressure across states. Western Australia and South Australia sit lowest, at 16 per cent and 17 per cent.
The gender gap is stark and consistent throughout the report as 28 per cent of women went without care due to cost, versus 17 per cent of men — an 11-point spread Finder attributes to both higher healthcare engagement among women and the cumulative impact of cost-of-living pressure on female-led households.
A quarter of Australians (25 per cent) have visited a hospital emergency department because they couldn’t get an affordable GP appointment, and a further 14 per cent say they’d do the same if GP costs became prohibitive — putting close to 4 in 10 within reach of an avoidable ED visit.
Finder health insurance expert Ceyda Erem, who authored the report, said the trend reflects households making health decisions based on their bank balance rather than medical advice, warning that deferred care tends to resurface later as bigger, more expensive problems.
Just over half of Australians (53 per cent) hold some form of private health insurance, but the report suggests plenty of holders aren’t getting much out of it. More than a quarter (28 per cent) have been caught out paying out-of-pocket for a service they expected their cover to pay, and Gen Z is hit hardest by this, with 42 per cent of young cover-holders blindsided by a gap payment.
Holders are split almost evenly on whether their cover delivers value: 38 per cent say they rarely make claims and don’t feel they get value, 38 per cent say they regularly benefit, and 25 per cent feel they could be claiming more than they do. Once again, the split runs along gender lines — 45 per cent of women say they rarely claim, versus 33 per cent of men, while men are noticeably more likely to hold higher-tier Gold or Silver cover, and women are more likely to sit on Basic cover or be unsure which tier they even have.
Premiums rose 4.41 per cent this year — the steepest increase in more than a decade — yet 83 per cent of policyholders stick with the same insurer year after year, and 18 per cent never review their cover at all. Finder notes that switching to a comparable plan typically saves $200–$400 a year, and that switching doesn’t reset waiting periods, provided the new policy is an equivalent or lower tier.
The pressure on private cover is showing up in cancellations too: 22 per cent of holders say they’ve cancelled, plan to cancel, or plan to downgrade their cover in the next 12 months, and women are notably less satisfied with what they have — just 31 per cent say they’re happy with their plan, compared with 46 per cent of men
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