New analysis from Private Health Australia has laid bare the damaging consequences of the Albanese Government's decision to cut the private health insurance rebate for Australians over 65 – a move set to triple the cost increase faced by those most reliant on their health cover.
The analysis shows couples aged over 65 with gold cover could be slugged an additional $1,614 from April 2027 – a staggering 21.3 per cent increase. This represents the biggest rise in private health costs on record, hitting older Australians right in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Anne Ruston said the decision would hurt around 3.2 million older Australians, including hundreds of thousands of pensioners living on fixed incomes.
"The Albanese Government is lying to Australians that this health tax on pensioners is about fixing generational inequity. It is about Jim Chalmers desperately trying to fix his budget while pitting older Australians against younger generations," Senator Ruston said.
"It's a false economy because all it achieves is hip pocket pain for pensioners who have to scrimp and save to pay their own way, while forcing those who cannot afford it into the public health system which we all pay for.
"This is entirely consistent from a Labor government that is making older Australians wait months and months for home care and charges them to have a shower. Anthony Albanese's treatment of older Australians tells you everything you need to know about his values."
Meanwhile Labor is hiding behind secret "new modelling" which Health Minister Mark Butler claims shows a completely different result to the independent advice handed to the Albanese Government in 2023.
"Australians deserve to know why their government is concealing the evidence behind the biggest private health cost increase on record," Senator Ruston said.
"Every Australian who is forced to drop their private health cover puts more pressure on our already stretched public hospitals, where it is taxpayers who foot the bill.
"All Labor is doing is shifting costs onto state government books without saving taxpayer money and causing harm to the entire system in the process.
"Longer elective surgery waitlists, more ambulance ramping and worse outcomes for patients are the inevitable result of a government that cannot manage the Budget and will not level with the Australian people."
The Coalition is calling on the Government to immediately reconsider this damaging policy, which will hurt older Australians, increase pressure on taxpayers and further strain Australia's public hospital system.
ENDS
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