grodscorp@grods.comHealth choices
 | Posted by Scott on Saturday 10 May 2008, 5:23 pm Categories: Health, Politics Tags: Tags: BrendanNelson, LiberalParty, Medicare, PrivateHealthInsurance |
One of the things that most Australians would agree on is that this country should have a decent public health system that is more than just a safety net, with a private health system available for those who choose to use it and are capable of paying. We shudder at the thought of an “Americanised” health system where one’s access to the health system is contingent upon the ability to pay.
The Howard Liberal government (the party of “choice”, remember) tried very hard in its eleven years to maximise the number of people with private health insurance by making it uneconomical to do otherwise. The taxpayer now subsidises 35% of private health insurance premiums, there is a penalty for not taking out health insurance before the age of 31, and taxpayers without private health pay a sizeable levy towards Medicare when they earn over $50,000.
But the Rudd government today announced that the Medicare levy threshold would be increased for the first time since 1997.
Under the current system, middle-income earners pay an average levy of $600 if they are not privately insured and the changes will see the threshold increased to $100,000 for singles and $150,000 for couples.
Ms Roxon says the threshold has not been adjusted to keep pace with wages since it was set in 1997.
“At that time when the threshold was $50,000 a year, average wages were well under that at around $34,000 a year,” she said.
“Now you can be earning less than the average wage and still be hit by the Howard government’s threshold. We don’t think that’s fair.”
Of course the opposition has opposed the move which they see as some sort of bizarre reverse discrimination.
Federal opposition leader Brendan Nelson says the Rudd government’s Medicare levy reforms are a cruel “con”.
Dr Nelson said the move to double the salary required before a taxpayer without private health insurance pays the levy would only have negative affects.
“There is absolutely no doubt that as a result of this fewer people will take up private health insurance,” Dr Nelson told reporters in Sydney today.
[...]
“The pensioners and battlers of this country, some of whom used to go without food to pay for their private health insurance, are now going to find they have to pay higher premiums,” Dr Nelson said.
I’m sorry, Brendan, but if the pensioners and battlers of this country are forced to go without food to pay for private health insurance because they’ve been given no choice by the Howard government then your party should be ashamed of itself. The health funds are starting to suggest that Medicare should be means tested but clearly many Australians who can’t afford health insurance already feel like they have no choice.
