Right Pulse

Seems someone in the Department of Finance has really messed up on reviewing the Government’s medicare policy:

Treasury expects 485,000 people will dump private cover, saving $230 million next financial year.

In a report commissioned by the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Access Economics says to achieve those savings, 800,000 people would have to abandon private cover by July.

So to achieve the Government’s savings from not paying the private health care rebate, as a result of people dumping their private cover with the increase in the medicare levy threshold, more people will have to dump their private coverage than what the Government is saying.

So which is it? More people will dump their private coverage to deliver the savings to the Federal Government but increase the fiscal burden of the public system, or less people will dump their coverage and not deliver the savings to the Federal Government, but still increase the fiscal burden of the public system – just not to the same extent. Either way the state governments have just had an additional fiscal burden placed upon them, the issue is just to what extent.