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

Ms SHARKIE (Mayo) (16:11): The Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026 looks to implement the 2026-2027 budget measures that the government did not mention in the election last year. It will remove the additional private health insurance subsidy that's provided to Australians aged over 65. There's nothing really modernising about this bill; this bill is really just an attack on older Australians.

That's what it should be called—'Private Health Insurance Amendment (Attack on Older Australians)'. Now, should this bill pass, the government discount for people aged 65 and over on the premiums charged by private health insurance will be limited to no more than 24 per cent. The reality of this is that older Australians who are barely hanging on to their private health insurance will have no choice but to forgo their private health insurance, because that little bit of extra rebate has helped them just to be able to afford to keep it.

Now, it is not all of them—many people have already had to leave their private health insurance—but many tell me that they will do everything possible. They will go without buying food, without going out for dinner, without discretionary items just to keep their private health insurance. And it's not like age pensioners in particular have this ability—particularly those who have been retired for some period of time—to just go back to work. 'I'll just pick up some extra hours here and there.' They're in their 80s, and the government is doing this to them.

The government anticipates that the proposed changes will save $3 billion over four years from 1 April 2027. It says that will be used to increase the funding available for more residential aged-care beds and more Support at Home packages. But this is mean-spirited and, I think, a false economy.

The government's own modelling says that the increase is going to be $240 per person, but many older Australians in Mayo that have talked to me have said that they are looking at their premiums. Many are on gold level, and their figures are saying more than $1,000 in costs for them as a couple. The government admits that, prior to the budget announcement, there was little consultation beyond a 2022-23 independent study of private health insurance incentives.

So what we have here is an announce-and-defend policy. The government has, since the budget, had the benefit of significant public and expert commentary on its proposal, and, unsurprisingly, very little of it has been positive. Private Healthcare Australia represent insurers and hospital groups, and they are concerned about the reduced private health insurance participation, the viability of regional private hospitals and the resulting additional pressure on the public hospital system.

In Mayo there are nearly 36,000 residents aged over 65 who held private health insurance as of 30 December last year. As a large electorate with an older demographic, Mayo has more people affected by this policy change than any other electorate in the nation. Therefore, it is very much my duty to continue to highlight this issue in the parliament and plead with the government to change their position.

Many older Australians with chronic health and complex health conditions, including pensioners, devote a high proportion of their often limited and fixed incomes to private health insurance. We in this place know that one in four pensioners are living in poverty, yet the government are still implementing this very friendless policy. They are relying heavily on this insurance rebate change so they can access the funds, which they say they're going to put into aged care.

But, ultimately, if the government were a little bit more careful with how they spent the rest of the near $1 trillion every year, we wouldn't need to be so punitive towards older Australians. South Australian minister Blair Boyer announced that we have a record-high number of South Australians who are waiting for aged care in our hospital system. Indeed, just a few years ago, in the first year of this government, there were just 60.

Now there are 487. Can you imagine what that number is going to be next year? We're going to have even more pressure on our public hospital system.

The South Australian government recently warned that cuts to health insurance rebates would further increase elective surgery waitlists, and we had the SA chief health executive, Robyn Lawrence, saying that the removal of age based tiers may have unintended consequences for access to care and place additional pressure on the public hospital system. While people who decide to cease their private health insurance may be treated as a public patient in a public hospital, we all know that the waiting times for public care are already long, and potentially they will blow out even further.

Further, private hospitals in regional areas may no longer be viable, should private health insurance membership drop. Possible additional closures to regional private hospitals will impact the whole of communities, well beyond the target group of over-65s, and regional private hospitals often take on non-urgent patients to ease pressures on the rural public hospital system.

In fact, the Australian Private Hospitals Association reports that private hospitals perform 70 per cent of all planned surgeries in Australia overall. As the peak body, the Australian Private Hospitals Association describes the government's proposed changes to the rebate as a 'disaster in waiting'. And National Seniors Australia is hearing from thousands of older people experiencing angst about their ability to maintain private health insurance.

Recently, National Seniors Australia polled 1,400 respondents, and that showed that 50 per cent would consider dropping their premium if it increased from $500 to $1,000 more a year. Another poll of around 5,400 people showed that 91 per cent were against the cuts. The government says the average cuts will be around $250 a year.

The National Seniors Australia estimate shows that this could be $1,000-plus for a couple with gold cover, noting that more than 2.6 million Australians aged 65 and over have hospital cover. More older Australians have gold plans that cover surgeries such as joint replacements, which over-65s are more likely to need. For these people, the impact will be higher than average.

I've got to tell you—and I'm sure this is the same for every member in this place—I have been contacted by hundreds upon hundreds of older Australians who are deeply fearful about this government bill. Here are just a few of their stories. Kathleen said to me: I am 82 years old and have always had Private Health Insurance and am horrified to learn of the forthcoming downgrading of the rebate for over 65 years.

Australia has an aging population and emergency departments in hospitals are overcrowded and ambulance ramping has not improved and I worry that this idea of downgrading of the rebate will cause many people to be priced out of Private Health and therefore increase even further the problems in the Health Care System. One Mayo resident and her husband, both in their mid-70s, said to me: We have made considerable sacrifices to maintain our private health cover.

We have always believed that retaining private health insurance was a responsible choice, both for our own well-being, having faster access to treatment if required and to help reduce the pressure on the public hospital system, that is already struggling. In the past year, however, our circumstances have changed dramatically. My husband received a serious medical diagnosis and we have had to rely heavily on our private hospital cover to access timely treatment and specialist care.

At our age, we are already facing rising living costs, increased yearly health insurance premiums and significant out-of-pocket medical expenses as specialist fees are well in excess of Medicare rebates. The removal of the age-based rebate would place an additional financial burden on many older Australians who have worked hard throughout their lives and who are now trying to manage complex health issues.

They are worried that this will place even greater pressure on an already overstretched public health system. I think it is an extremely short-sighted decision to penalise older Australians at this stage of their life, when they are most likely to need healthcare, and in light of the additional costs that will be incurred by the government for health care. Viv, in my electorate, said to me: I do not need to let you know of my personal dilemma concerning the Labor Government's unfair removal of the Private Health Fund rebate for the Over-80 age group, supposedly to pay for Aged Care.

Now there is the big decision if that is just one "hit" too many. After 55 years of having Private Health insurance but managing the annual increases, then the big gap payments that come from Specialist costs and Doctor visits, then the increase in the cost of trying to keep warm, or cool, register my car, pay the council rates and water rates, and so it goes on and on … I never thought I would spend my last years after a full, active and working life of paying taxes, that I would be struggling with the relentless increases in the Cost of Living on a fixed income.

Does the Federal government despise older people that much? That's what they've said to me. Jonathan says: I am writing to let you know my anger and dismay at the Federal Government's proposal to cut the private healthcare rebate for those aged 65 or older.

This proposal, especially during this time of cost-of-living pressures, is an appalling way to treat people who will likely need their health insurance more as they age and are also likely to be on fixed incomes. For the Government to dress it up as "intergenerational fairness" ignores the many sacrifices already made by older people and to signal that any savings would be directed back into the aged care system is of little to no comfort.

One reason why older people have private healthcare is to avoid the aged care system for as long as possible. Potentially forcing people to consider relinquishing their private healthcare because of this proposal, on top of the already costly premiums, is mean-spirited and ignores the great contribution that older people have already made and continue to contribute to society.

This is why, as a representative of Mayo, the oldest electorate by median age in South Australia and that which will have the highest number of constituents affected by this government's cruel cuts to private health insurance rebate for older Australians, I call on the government. I beg the government to please rethink this bill and look after our most vulnerable.

They've already paid their taxes. They're already paying their private health insurance. They want to be able to maintain that and maintain dignity in their older age.

This bill is a dreadful bill. It's actually bad policy as well as bad politics. I would urge the government to reconsider.