Coalition and Greens senators have united against the Albanese Government’s controversial plan to scrap the private health insurance bonus for over-65s as new modelling reveals most of those affected by the change take home less than $37,000 a year. Source: The Age.
The move jeopardises the reform’s passage through parliament and the $3 billion in savings Labor is banking on to fund thousands of aged care beds as well as cover its backdown from making older Australians pay for at-home care services such as showering and dressing.
A Labor-led Senate inquiry into the government’s push to repeal the insurance rebate benefit for seniors yesterday approved of the proposal despite a revolt from non-Labor committee members.
The Coalition and Greens sounded the alarm that low- and fixed-income pensioners would be the least able to absorb the extra cost, estimated to be hundreds of dollars a year for those with the highest cover.
The government has repeatedly been forced to reverse course on its aged care reforms under pressure from the opposition and crossbench as it wrangles with the ballooning $40 billion sector that is buckling under an ageing population.
Health Minister Mark Butler has argued that repealing the bonus would make the system fairer by basing it on income instead of granting older Australians a rebate up 8 per cent higher than younger people on a similar income.
The committee report pointed to widespread support for the need to increase investment in aged care, and the department’s assessment that the change would create a more simplified system.
But it also noted objections from the Australian Medical Association, which said greater investment should not come at the expense of private health insurance holders, and the Council of the Ageing Australia, which warned an equal rebate across age groups was not necessarily equitable.
Coalition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston accused Labor senators of ignoring evidence from hundreds of inquiry submissions in service of the government’s agenda.
Senator Ruston also released Department of Health modelling on the income brackets of those with private health insurance, which she said was done only after months of pressure from stakeholders.
More than 2 million over-65s with private health insurance would earn less than $37,000 annually, according to the department’s modelling for 2028-29. Just under another 600,000 would be earning between $37,000 and $68,000. Those figures are based on income, so don’t necessarily reflect how many people are pensioners.
The Greens said in their dissenting report they would work with the government to make amendments to prevent unintended harms.
FULL STORY
Coalition and Greens unite to revolt against Labor’s private health ‘pensioner penalty’ (By Brittany Busch, The Age)
