Gillard Government Mulls Means Testing for Health Insurance Rebates
Idaima Lopez, 24, pregnant with triplets, waits in a bed in a public maternity hospital in Gatire on the outskirts of Caracas October 5, 2011. The hospital is part of the 'Barrio Adentro' programme, which is a collaboration between the governments of Venezuela and Cuba, where highly trained Cuban doctors help provide publicly-funded health care for poor and marginalized communities in Venezuela. The world's population will reach seven billion on 31 October 2011, according to projections by the United Nations. Picture taken October 5, 2011Once approved, about 2.4 million wealthy Australians would pay up to $1,000 a year more from health cover beginning July.
Under the bill, individuals who earn more than $83,000 a year and couples earning more than $160,000 would have their rebates cut by up to 20 per cent. The rebates were introduced by the Howard government to reduce the cost of health insurance by 30 per cent regardless of the income level of the insured.
For 2012-13, the change would raise $746.3 million which would help the Gillard government fulfill its promise to return to a $1.5-billion budget surplus.
The measure, which was rejected by parliament when it was first proposed three years ago and was twice thumbed down, is expected to receive support even outside Labor Party. Greens MP Adam Bandt is supporting the measure, Tasmania independent MP Andrew Wilkie has said he is included to support it and regional crossbencher Rob Oakeshott is believed to be supportive of the bill. has promised to fight the proposal, but did not commit to reversing the measures if he becomes prime minister.
A study by Treasury said the amendment would cause 0.3 per cent of private health insurance holders or only 27,000 people to drop out altogether and rely solely on the public health system. All of the dropouts would be singles who earn between $83,000 and $96,000 per annum and couples who earn between $166,000 and $192,000.
Those two groups, who are on the first tier of people eligible for the means test, have income low enough and would not be hit by a Medicare levy surcharge if they drop out of private health insurance, but high enough to be affected by the means test.
Health Insurance Tasmania - News
By Vittorio Hernandez | February 13, 2012 3:59 PM EST The bill introduced by Australian Health Minister Tanya Pilbersek in Parliament that seeks to put in place a means testing for health insurance rebates is expected to receive parliamentary approval
The Opposition Leader has written an opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph promising to restore the private health insurance rebate as an "article of faith". Queensland election – Sean Parnell reports: Premier Anna Bligh will enjoy parliamentary
The West Page 4: Tony Abbott has added health insurance to his campaign against rising living costs, vowing to restore the 30 per cent rebate for almost 2.5 million wealth Australians facing higher premiums from July. Page 5: Colin Barnett says
She told on Tuesday the Greens would blow a $170m hole in the budget if they followed their plan to vote down an increase in the tax penalty applied to higher-income earners who do not take take out private health insurance.
The Private Health Insurance Administration Council's Operations of Private Health Insurers Annual Report 2010-11, shows income from premiums increased 8.8 per cent on the previous financial year. It showed benefits paid to members increased by 7.6 per
Labor's broken promise on healthcare rebate will hurt Northern ...
MEDIA RELEASE – ANDREW NIKOLIC
15 February 2012
LABOR’S BROKEN PROMISE ON HEALTHCARE REBATE WILL HURT NORTHERN TASMANIA
Labor’s broken promise today on the private health insurance rebate is yet another direct attack on the 47,370 Bass residents that are currently covered by Private Health Insurance.
The Labor-Greens Government’s passing of legislation through the House of Representatives will significantly limit the eligibility of families to claim the 30% Private Health Insurance Rebate.
Andrew Nikolic, Liberal Candidate for Bass says this continues the hip-pocket pain being inflicted on the people of Northern Tasmania.
“The combined effects of Labor’s broken promises have a disproportionate effect in Bass because it is a comparatively low income electorate. Hard working people with Private Health Insurance will feel the effects of this measure in a number of ways, particularly because of the restricted access to bulk billing and availability of specialist services locally,” Mr Nikolic said.
“Labor’s uses the language of envy and division to portray this measure as impacting on high income earners, but the reality is it will hit the pockets of every policy holder. Means testing the healthcare rebate will cause all premiums to rise, some by up to 40%.”
An April 2011 Deloitte report into the impact of Labor’s policy concludes that 1.6 million customers would drop their insurance policies and a further 4.3 million customers would downgrade their policies.
“This is yet another broken promise from Julia Gillard, who with former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised not to touch the Private Health Insurance Rebate.
“This is yet another breach of trust with the Australian people, who will lose when premiums rise and again when public hospital queues grow,” Mr Nikolic concluded.