Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you're over 65 on the Mornington Peninsula, Labor's latest budget is likely to rip hundreds of dollars out of your pocket just to keep the private health insurance you've been relying on for years. Buried in this budget is a decision to axe the private health insurance rebate which has been offered for older Australians since 2004. What does that mean in practice? It means more than 1.4 million Australians aged over 65 will be forced to pay up to $640 more every single year just to keep the health cover they already use at a time when electricity bills are up 32 per cent, groceries are up by 17 per cent, insurance is up by 42 per cent already rents are up 23 per cent and just about everything else is up too.

Nowhere will this hit harder than on the Mornington Peninsula. Nearly one in three residents in my electorate of Flinders is aged over 65—the third highest of any electorate in Australia. We have more than 33,500 private health insurance holders aged over 65. Private health insurance supported more than 41,000 hospitalisations for older Australians in my electorate—once again, the third highest in the nation. Every one of these hospitalisations covered by the private system is one less cost for the public system to bear.

Let's be very clear about this: private health insurance is not a luxury item for retirees on the peninsula. It keeps pressure off our already overstretched public hospitals, like the Rosebud Hospital which the state Labor government refuses to rebuild, even when the state seat of Nepean was its most marginal seat. Private health insurance allows older Australians to get surgery when they need it, to see local specialists and to maintain their independence—costing the public system less, in both health and aged care.

Last week, I launched a survey asking local residents what these changes would mean for them—and the response was overwhelming. There were hundreds of replies within hours. Jana from Safety Beach told me that after her husband underwent two open-heart surgeries and after she herself underwent two knee replacements, rising insurance costs will force them to cut back on everyday activities just to stay insured. Deb from McCrae said she has faithfully paid for her private health insurance since 1977, but now feels she's being pushed and punished at exactly the age she is most likely to need it.

These are not wealthy elites asking for handouts. My residents have an average weekly income of $745 versus $805 for the rest of the country. These are Australians who worked hard, paid their taxes, raised families and did the responsible thing by taking out insurance. Now Labor wants to make them pay more for it. Older Australians deserve much better than this.