The politics of envy is one of the ALP’s specialities. We see it with the increase in car taxes and in raising the medicare levy surcharge threshold – which will raise costs for all people. Fewer customers = higher charges for everyone else:
The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the Prime Minister personally wrote to the industry umbrella group only days before the 2007 poll to re-assure them he would maintain existing arrangements with the levy in government.
Yesterday, however, Treasurer Wayne Swan revealed major changes to be unveiled in Tuesday’s Budget, where the income threshold at which the surcharge applies will double from $50,000 to $100,000.
The decision to raise the threshold means up to 2.4 million Australians will no longer need to join private health funds to avoid the penalty.