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

Mr CALDWELL (Fadden—Opposition Chief Whip) (13:21): I rise today to speak on the Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026. Of course, as is typical, it's a very cleverly titled bill presented in this place by the Labor government which completely avoids the fact that what it's really doing is taking much-needed assistance away from older Australians under the guise of modernisation.

It's not. This is a hatchet job on older Australians. In what has become the typical fashion of this Labor government, this was another surprise to the Australian people back on 12 May this year, when the budget was delivered by the Treasurer.

I'll come back to that a little bit later. But, suffice to say, there was no discussion about this prior to the 2025 election. The government, in fact, in the months leading up to that election, were actively selling the affordability of private health insurance and the provision of rebates to older Australians.

What this bill actually does is strip back the private health insurance rebate. We on this side of the House fear that it will leave many older Australians extremely vulnerable, having to make difficult decisions about how they are going to spend their precious dollars. Many will be forced into making the difficult decision to let their private health insurance lapse.

If they don't let it lapse, they might need to downgrade it. But all of this is acknowledged by the government. They know this is going to happen.

At a time when there is clearly a cost-of-living crisis presenting itself to everyday Australians as they pay their power bills, pay their rent, pay their mortgages or go to the shops to buy groceries, this Labor government, instead of making things easier, is going to make things much, much harder and more expensive for older Australians. What has been commented on quite broadly by the states, who deliver the frontline health services in our country, is that they know that this will place an enormous amount of pressure on the public health system.

The way we see the public health system operating is that healthcare workers are working so incredibly hard to try and keep up in very difficult circumstances where there is extreme pressure already on the public health system. If you add one patient or 10 patients to public hospitals, let alone adding thousands of patients to that public hospital system, with people at a point in time in their lives when we know that they are more likely to be needing these services, it is absolutely going to put more pressure on our public health system.

As people get older, they are more likely to need to engage with health care. That is why private health insurance helps to reduce the pressure on the public system. It is extremely sound for the government to recognise this and help to shift that burden from the public system onto the private system for those who can afford it.

And a little bit of an incentive for older Australians to get there has been available to them for many, many years now. We also know—and the member for Kooyong has an amendment to give effect to a change in relation to this—that many of the older Australians who invest their hard-earned money in private health insurance are pensioners. These are not fictional wealthy older Australians.

These are some of the people who've worked hardest through their lives and have the lowest and most basic form of income in their latter years but have still made the decision to prioritise their health care and to prioritise their investment in private health care to ensure that they can get that service in their later years. National Seniors Australia has found that as many as 45 per cent of people whose sole income source is the age pension hold private health insurance.

That's an extraordinary amount and one which is probably counterintuitive to many of those opposite. But this is exactly what the government is doing in this bill: they are going to make it even harder for pensioners in our country to be able to afford to continue with their private health insurance. We believe that the government should scrap this proposed cut and stop treating older Australians who have done the right thing for decades as its next revenue source to prop up their failing budget.

I know why this is an important issue because I have had many, many of my local constituents write in to explain their views—their concerns—about the decision that's been taken by this government in their May budget. Ken from Runaway Bay has maintained private health insurance for decades, and he told me: We did as we were asked back in 2000, we continued our Private Health Insurance and this compliance allowed us access to receive a rebate from the Australian Government to help cover the cost of premiums which of course continue to rise.

Ken went on to say: We did as we were asked and for that compliance we are now being punished when finances are restricted/limited. His message to the government is very clear and one that I deliver in this place today: Please reconsider the changes and allow the aged community to maintain their quality of life. Richard, from my local suburb of Hollywell, has raised exactly the same concern.

He said: 'Cameron, if this goes ahead, it will force many pensioners to drop out of private health insurance and put much more pressure on Australia's public health service. Sir, this matter is very serious.' He wrote again and said, 'This ruling could put extreme pressure on our already struggling national health service.' The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): This debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43.

The debate may be resumed at a later hour, and the member will be granted leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.