Private insurance debate
June 29, 2012
THE Minister for Health, Tanya
Plibersek, has slammed claims
printed in the Courier Mail by State
Health Minister Lawrence
Springborg, that 320,000
Queenslanders will ditch their
private health insurance and clog
up the public system because of
the new law to means-test the
private health insurance rebate.
“For Mr Springborg to say that
hospital services will be impacted
misleads the Queensland public
and only serves to spread fear in
the community,” Plibersek said.
“A family would need to have an
income of more than $260,000 a
year before they would lose the
rebate entirely.
“To suggest of thousands people
who might not even be affected by
the changes will drop out is
ridiculous,” she added.
Plibersek backed up her argument,
saying the story made no
reference to Treasury modeling
which said that 99.7% of people
will not drop their cover as a result
of means-testing.
The Health Minister also said that
the Deloitte report referenced in
the article, which suggested that
people would drop out, was “out of
date didn’t take account of
historical data which showed new
members were joining health funds
all the time”.
“In fact, the latest data from the
Private Health Insurance
Administration Council shows that
during the first three months of this
year, when Parliament was
debating the new law, another
50,000 people actually joined
health funds,” she said.
Plibersek went further, defending
means-testing saying it means that
low and middle income earners
would no longer subsidise the
health insurance of higher income
Australians, and that nearly eight
million Aussies with private health
insurance won’t be affected.
The changes will come into effect
on 01 July this year and will see
individuals and families earning
upwards of $130,000 per annum
lose the rebate entirely, whilst
individuals earning around $84,000
or less and couples and families
earning around $168,000 or less
will not be affected.
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