Analysis reveals pensioners to shoulder $1.6b of private health insurance

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) analysis, exclusively obtained by the ABC, found about $1.6 billion would be raised from age pensioners, with opponents arguing the cohort was “least able” to afford the changes.

Pensioners will be hit hard by the federal government’s controversial private health insurance rebate changes, with new analysis revealing about half of the $3 billion in forecast savings will be clawed back from those on lower incomes. The federal government is moving to wind back the rebate those aged 65 and over receive on their private health cover, banking about $3 billion to spend elsewhere in the aged care system.

Independent MP Monique Ryan, who commissioned the analysis, said the government’s move had proved to be “a cash grab aimed at older Australians on low and fixed incomes during a cost-of-living crisis”. She said the proposal could force many older Australians on low incomes to drop or downgrade their cover, pushing them onto already overburdened public health systems. However, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory are among the states and territories concerned by the proposal, fearing extra pressure on their public systems at a time of great demand.