SENATOR THE HON ANNE RUSTON

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE

DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE

SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA

MEDIA RELEASE​​

Wednesday, 3 September 2026

OLDER AUSTRALIANS FIGHT BACK: LABOR’S $3 BILLION HEALTH REBATE CUT FACES SENATE SCRUTINY

Public hearings into the Albanese Government’s plan to cut the private health insurance rebate for more than 3.2 million older Australians begin today, with the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee to take evidence today and tomorrow.

The Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026 - introduced by Health Minister Mark Butler on 25 June 2026 - cuts the rebate older Australians receive from 28 to 24 per cent for those aged 65 to 69, and from 32 to 24 per cent for those aged 70 and over, to bank a saving of almost $3 billion ($2,994.7 million) over four years.

Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, Senator Anne Ruston, said the Coalition was determined to block the plan in the Senate because it was nothing more than a cost shift onto older Australians and the public hospital system.

“It’s clear the Albanese Government saw this as a lazy way to patch Jim Chalmers’ Budget without bothering to do their homework,” Senator Ruston said.

“Only through pressure from the Coalition, health stakeholders and the tens of thousands of older Australians who have signed petitions, written letters and called their MPs, have we forced Labor to run the numbers on their own policy and what has been revealed is damning.”

“Australians were never told about this cut before the election. It was not in Labor’s platform and now the pensioners and self-funded retirees who did the right thing their whole lives are being asked to pay for it.”

Since Minister Butler announced the policy - in a National Press Club speech, with no accompanying press release - the evidence against it has mounted:

• Of the more than 3.2 million older Australians who will pay more, around 1.2 million are Age Pensioners and the Government did not bother to model the impact on pensioners until it was forced to by stakeholders.

• The Government claims the average cost is around $226 to $255 a year. Insurers and older Australians themselves put the real figure far higher: up to $600 to $1,600 a year for couples on Gold cover, particularly those aged over 70.

• The Government says only 44,000 people will drop their cover. Medibank estimates as many as 91,000 will drop out entirely, while Private Healthcare Australia warns up to 200,000 more will downgrade, which means trading cover for elective surgery for cheaper, more basic policies.

• Health ministers across the country including in Labor-run New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria, and in Queensland and Tasmania have warned the cut will push more patients onto public hospital waiting lists, worsen elective surgery delays and leave older patients stranded in hospital.

Senator Ruston said the human cost was already clear from the submissions of older Australians to the inquiry.

“Keith is 90 and travelled 1,000 kilometres to Brisbane for cardiac stenting. His wife Janice, 77, was $7,000 out of pocket for spinal surgery even with her Gold cover,” Senator Ruston said.

“These are the people Labor is asking to pay more. They are not wealthy — they are older Australians on fixed incomes in the bush who rely on their cover to get treated at all.”

“Labor should drop this cruel and tricky cut and stop balancing the Budget on the backs of older Australians.”

The Coalition will continue to oppose the Bill in the Senate.

ENDS

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