Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026

Mr GEORGANAS (Adelaide) (15:28): In the short time that I have left, I'll continue from where I left off. The Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026 recognises that both public health care and aged care are national priorities that require ongoing investment. It also recognises that the population is changing and that public policy must evolve with it.

But most importantly this legislation demonstrates a willingness to make responsible decisions in the long-term interests of older Australians—choices that this government is making that ensure resources are used where they will achieve a greatest impact, choices that strengthen the sustainability of our health and aged-care systems, and choices that prepare Australia for the future.

This bill is about investing more effectively in the future of older Australians. It's about ensuring that, when older Australians need that aged care, the services are available. It's about ensuring shorter waiting times, and it's about ensuring better care.

It's also about ensuring that future generations inherit an aged-care system that is properly funded and capable of meeting growing demand. Australia's older generations built the communities, workplaces and institutions that we all benefit from today, so they deserve an aged-care system that supports them with dignity, quality and compassion. The bill helps deliver that future by redirecting resources to where they can make the greatest difference because, if we are serious about improving aged care, we have to be willing to invest in it.

That is exactly what this legislation does. I know that some older Australians have heard discussions about this bill and are understandably concerned. As I said earlier in the speech, many have contacted my office and have told me that they think that they're losing their private health insurance rebate because of what's been promulgated by the other side.

But I want to be really clear that this is not what this legislation does. The private health insurance rebate is being retained. Older Australians who currently receive the rebate will continue to receive a government subsidy towards the cost of their private health insurance.

It's up to 24 per cent if you're earning $101,000 or less. The rebate is not going to be abolished, the rebate is not disappearing, and support for older Australians to maintain private health insurance will continue. Now, let's not forget that, when we talk about cuts to health and supporting older Australians—look at Labor's record; look at the coalition's record—there is a clear distinction of where the cuts have come from in the past.

Look at the former coalition. We saw billions of dollars cut out of hospital funding after a promise was made by the then leader of the opposition Mr Abbott, who became Prime Minister, who had said there would be no cuts to health or hospital. In his first budget, $2 billion was cut out of the health system.

Then also there was trying to change the rebate system by proposing a $7 co-payment on rebates for doctor visits and proposing a $5 increase in co-payments for the PBS. That was all proposed by the other side. So, when we talk about health and the realisation that we have to make it better for older Australians, I'm not going to be lectured by the other side about what we're doing.

We're very proud of our health record. We're proud of the bulk-billing rates. We're proud of the money that's being put into health.

We're proud of the PBS system and ensuring that no pensioner pays more than $7 per prescription. These are all cost-saving measures for older Australians, ensuring that we're assisting them. This is an important bill.

As I said, it's not about cuts, it's about ensuring that we put the money that's saved directly into older Australians—aged-care packages and home-care packages—to ensure they have the services that they will require, perhaps at a later time. What this bill does is it ensures that support is distributed fairly and that savings generated are reinvested directly into savings that older Australians rely upon every day.

This is a reasonable and responsible choice by this government, because, if we're serious about improving aged care, we must also be serious about funding it. The true measure of a society is how it cares for its older Australians. I commend the bill to the House.