Private health calculations up in smoke

Lenore Taylor and Siobhain Ryan

Article excerpt:

TREASURY has found the Coalition's savings alternative to Labor's means-testing of the private health insurance rebate would fall up to $3.2 billion short over a decade. The Coalition's threat to block the budget measure in the Senate was further undermined yesterday when insurers questioned whether Labor's means test on the rebate would trigger an exodus from the private health system.

Malcolm Turnbull has singled out the means test on the 30 per cent rebate as the one budget measure the Coalition will oppose, saying it is ideological and designed to drive people out of private insurance and into the over-stretched public health system.

...Health Minister Nicola Roxon said yesterday the Government was determined to press ahead with the private health rebate savings, but agreed the increase in tobacco excise could also be a good idea, linking it with the so-called alcopops tax.

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