TRANSCRIPT
5AA MORNINGS WITH GRAEME GOODINGS
Thursday, 14th May 2026
Topics: Private Health Insurance Rebate Cuts for over-65s
E&OE……………………………………
GRAEME GOODINGS: Joining me now is Shadow Aged Care Minister Anne Ruston
SENATOR RUSTON: Good morning.
GRAEME GOODINGS: And that's a good morning to you.
SENATOR RUSTON: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
GRAEME GOODINGS: What do you make of this decision to cut the rebates?
SENATOR RUSTON: Look, I think it's an incredibly big con on behalf of the Government because basically they're trying to convince Australians that there's some sort of saving to taxpayers by this measure. But actually what will end up happening here is that more Australian taxpayers will actually be paying more for health care than they currently are because at the moment older Australians who have their private health insurance are actually covering the lion's share of their own healthcare through their private health cover. If they move off the private health system and into the public system, working age taxpayers will be picking up the bill and we know that that bill will be much higher than they're currently picking up at the moment.
GRAEME GOODINGS: The Government says the change restores fairness between the generations.
SENATOR RUSTON: Well, nothing could be more incorrect than that. By moving older Australians who are currently paying for their own healthcare into the public system, the public system is paid for by the taxpayers and by virtue of who those people are, they are younger, working, taxpaying Australians. So it's actually the complete opposite.
GRAEME GOODINGS: How many older Australians do you think will lose coverage over this?
SENATOR RUSTON: Well, the Government's estimated about 44,000 people will drop their private health cover altogether, although the independent report that was handed to the Government suggests it's more like 91,000, but that doesn't count the number of people who are likely to drop from maybe being on gold cover to silver cover, so there'll be a reduction in the sort of level of care that people are taking from their private health insurance, which means that all of the conditions that they otherwise would have been treated, say for their gold cover, which could be joint replacements or cataract operations, which a lot of older people have to have, they'll end up in the private system. So the impact of this could be very, very significant for our public hospital system, which we already know is being overburdened. You can't get elective surgery. We're seeing ramping. We've got older Australians stuck in hospitals when they should be getting home care packages or in nursing homes. This will just exacerbate that problem.
GRAEME GOODINGS: The Government says it's just trying to achieve intergenerational fairness, do you think that's a legitimate argument?
SENATOR RUSTON: No I don't think it's a legitimate argument at all. In fact the whole budget on Tuesday night where they were trying to make this argument of intergenerational fairness is actually the opposite. I mean when you think about the decisions that they've made regarding capital gains tax and negative gearing - Anthony Albanese built up his property portfolio taking advantage of those particular tax measures. He is now choosing to deny our children and younger Australians the same opportunity that he had to be able to build his wealth so that he could have a retirement that he's going to have. So I think this idea of pitting younger Australians against older Australians, you're pitting grandparents against their grandchildren, I think is a disgusting thing for a government to be doing, especially when the truth of it is that nothing can be further from the truth. This is not smoothing out intergenerational inequity, it's actually entrenching it.
GRAEME GOODINGS: Do you think at least regarding private health insurance rebates, if they means tested them at least those that could afford to pay extra could, and those that can't would still get the benefit?
SENATOR RUSTON: Well, currently it is means tested. So currently you do not get a private health insurance rebate if you earn over, I think it's about $158,000. So many of us don't get access to the rebate who are lucky enough to have incomes over that amount. So it is already means tested and it's staged means tested, but there was a solid policy rationale behind why this was put in in the first place. People who've paid their private health all their lives get to an age over 65 when they're far more likely to need to rely on the health system by the very nature of ageing. So by keeping people and incentivising people to stay in the health system you actually end up with the private health system paying for their care, instead of the public health system which is taxpayers paying for their care. Mark Butler two weeks ago said on radio that for every dollar somebody over the age of 65 invests in their healthcare, they get a return of three dollars because that's the kind of level of care they're likely to need over 65. So instead of the private health insurance companies paying that $3, if you force people into the public system, the taxpayer pays that $3. So there was a very important policy reason why this was done in the first place. It saw the number of people who were picking up private health increase, which means less pressure on our public system. This will have the opposite effect. It will force people out of the private system into the public system. We will see the problems we're seeing with our health system, our public health system, worsened as a result of this and at the same time younger Australians will be paying more in their tax system and older Australians when they really need the security of mind of having private health insurance will be denied it, or be forced to pay so much more.
GRAEME GOODINGS: There are many older Australians listening to you at the moment who are very concerned about the changes. What would you say to them?
SENATOR RUSTON: Well, I'd say first and foremost, I will do everything I can to make sure I continue to fight on your behalf. But in South Australia, I would say go and speak to your local member of federal parliament. Go and see Claire Clutterham in Sturt, go and see Louise Miller-Frost in Boothby, go and Steve Georganas in Adelaide, go on see Mark Butler in Hindmarsh and tell them that you think that this is the most egregious policy that you've had. Tell them what the impact will be on you. That it will mean that you'll be forced into a system where you'll have to line up for months if not years for your care when you have all your life been funding your own health care. You need to make sure you put pressure on your local member of parliament so that they put pressure on the ministers over here so that we can get this terrible policy decision overturned.
GRAEME GOODINGS: Would your party commit to reversing this change if elected?
SENATOR RUSTON: Well, we are certainly doing everything we can to stop this policy coming in, in the first place. And we think it is a terribly bad policy and we were the ones that put the policy in in the first place to make sure that older Australians were incentivised to keep their healthcare. So we think is a really bad policy, and we will be doing everything we can to try and convince the people in the Senate, the Greens and the crossbench that we chuck this policy out before it even sees the light of day.
GRAEME GOODINGS: Well, the Government doesn't have the numbers to push it through in the Senate, so they could find it blocked before it becomes law.
SENATOR RUSTON: Well that's certainly our hope but we obviously have got a lot of work to do. The Greens ideologically have never been great supporters of the private health system so we've got a lot of work to do there, but I just want to assure your listeners that my number one priority going forward after the budget decision on this particular measure is to fight and fight and fight to get it overturned. And as I said, the best thing that your listeners can do to help me get this overturned is to make sure that your local member, your local Labor Member of Parliament understands the catastrophic impact this is going to have on your lives.
GRAEME GOODINGS: Well, thanks so much, Shadow Health and Aged Care Minister, Anne Ruston.
SENATOR RUSTON: Thanks for having me.
ENDS
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