Axe health subsidies for rich, Swan says

Article excerpt:

TREASURER Wayne Swan says subsidies for well-off Australians should be scrapped as the coalition appears intent on blocking federal government plans to means test private health insurance rebates

The government will have another trigger for a double dissolution election on Monday if the coalition rejects, for a second time, Labor's plan to make wealthier Australians pay more for their private health insurance.

Ahead of the Senate vote, Mr Swan maintains that 99.7 per cent of private health insurance holders would keep their policy even if the rich were forced to pay more. "This reform has been designed to maintain membership in private health insurance and to end subsidies to the most well-off Australians," the treasurer said in an economic note on Sunday. "Membership will be almost entirely maintained due in part to the increase in the Medicare levy surcharge for high-income earners providing them with an incentive to stay insured."

Treasury says a means test on private health insurance rebates would save $2 billion over the next four years and about $9 billion during the coming decade.

Article summary:

The coalition says it will vote against the proposal to means test the private health insurance rebate.

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