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Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Page: 5622

Mr NEVILLE (Hinkler—The Nationals Deputy Whip) (09:30): One way or another, about 53,000 people in my electorate of Hinkler will suffer under the Labor-Greens plan to means test private health insurance rebates. Almost 40,000 adults in my electorate hold private health insurance, covering 53,000 people, including children. Every single one of these, not just those in higher income brackets, will be hurt by the Labor-Greens plan to means test private health insurance rebates. You might ask, 'How?' The reality of life is that if you hit millions of Australians with increased premiums and many of those people then dump their private health insurance entirely you leave the remainder of the policyholders with higher premiums. In a double whammy, those people who have left private health insurance will turn to the public system, again adding pressure where pressure already exists. It is self-defeating.

Around 5.6 million Australians with private health cover earn less than $50,000 each year and around one million of those have incomes of less than $24,000. Yet people on these very modest incomes come into my office with private health insurance. Many people in Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Childers and other communities in my electorate fit into this category, including self-funded retirees, to say nothing of pensioners, DVA benefit recipients and battlers with young families. Many are trying to do the right thing and care for their own health needs by spending their own money on private health insurance. Yet this government wants to punish them by making it even tougher. Another consideration is the impact on existing and planned private hospital facilities, such as St Stephen's in Hervey Bay and the Friendly and Mater hospitals in Bundaberg. Any drop in the number of privately insured people accessing these hospitals will limit their ability to recruit specialists and offer a wide range of innovative services.

Hinkler has one of the largest over-65 demographic profiles in the country. Any weakening in private health insurance and hospital facilities in the region only adds to the strain on the existing public sector. As someone who worked very hard in the previous coalition government and played a significant role in getting the health insurance rebate lifted for over-65s to 35 per cent and for the over-70s to 40 per cent, I find this particularly offensive and I remind my Labor colleagues that it is going back on a promise that they made to the Australian people.