House debates Questions without Notice

Private Health Insurance

Tuesday, 15 September 2026 House of Representatives

Mark Butler

Mark Butler Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House

2:43 pm

You can only spend it once, mate! As I said yesterday, this is a difficult decision we have taken after reflection about the degree to which we need to lean in heavily to provide more aged-care services to a population that is ageing at unprecedented levels. What this decision will do is return the private health insurance rebate to its original design, which did not discriminate based on age. It provided people living next door to each other with the same rebate, even if they were of different ages. I said we don't take this decision lightly, but we have to make some hard choices if we are going to provide older Australians in unprecedented numbers with the sorts of care and dignity that they deserve.

Comments

No comments