Rebate carve-out is meanest test

HEALTH insurance rebates for older Aussies are far from saved. Despite the temporary reprieve in the Senate, the horse trading to carve out pensioners is in full swing.

This would leave part-pensioners and self-funded retirees on low, fixed incomes exposed. Eligibility for the rebate is means tested. So, in effect, such an amendment would be means testing the means test.

Part-pensioners and self-funded retirees on limited incomes would still pay the extra $1600 per couple next year or be forced to go public. It would be intrinsically unfair.

The higher rebate recognises that eligible pensioners, part-pensioners and self-funded retirees are on low fixed incomes, less able to cope with sharp cost changes, but they are also high users of high-end hospital services.

We implore all parties opposed to these draconian changes to hold the line. It would be unconscionable to pit older Australians on fixed, limited incomes against one another.

Brett Heffernan, CEO, Australian Private Hospitals Association, Canberra. Published in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Mercury newspapers on 17 October 20206.

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14/10/2026 An unhealthy gap