Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Three million older Australians with private health insurance, including over 400,000 age pensioners, feel betrayed by the government for ending the rebate that will see premiums soar by up to $1,600 for a couple. Many older Mayo residents have emailed me and said that they can't cut anything else from their budget—they're left with the choice of cutting food or health insurance. Why is the government treating older Australians so badly? What happened to leaving no-one left behind?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for the question. I'm happy to explain the government's rationale for the decisions we put into the budget on Tuesday night and I announced a few weeks ago. I don't accept the figure that the member has used in her question. I've seen the industry put out a figure like that. I can't find any way in which that is going to be real. We've been very clear in the modelling that we have prepared, based on different health insurance products out there, that the average impact of the change that we've announced would be somewhere between $230 and $250 per year, not the figures that are bandied about by the industry.

Nonetheless, we have taken this difficult decision in a challenging budget environment for these reasons. We don't think there is a strong policy rationale to pay different Australians different levels of support for their private health insurance membership, when they are on the same income, simply because of age.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fisher is now warned.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

 If there are two households next to each other on the same income and one household is working age, raising kids and taking out private health insurance, we don't see any rationale for paying them a lower level of support than a household next door that happens to be on the same income but of an older age.

This is a difficult decision. But at a time when this government needs to lean heavily into rising demand for aged care—and the member has raised that more than most in this House—we have to find every dollar we can to invest in those aged-care services. Of the $3 billion the member has mentioned from these saves—saves that we think are well supported by policy and well supported by equity—every single dollar will be invested in the minister for aged care's package of more beds, more packages and better care for older Australians.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the member for Forde, the members for Fisher, Casey, Bowman, Gippsland and Bendigo are all on warnings.