In April this year, Australia`s private health care costs rose 3.95%. This is not the first time that health insurance prices have risen. Australian health insurance premiums have risen by 70% over the past decade, meaning that the average Australian family now pays about $4000 a year for medical premiums! Australians are saying they can`t accept such a high premium.
Paul Moon, who is already the father of three, says his family used to buy Medibank insurance, but changed insurance companies eight years ago. Paul paid only $369 a month before the premium rise, but now it`s up 9%, and he needs to pay $32 more a month than before, or $401 a month.
Paul said in an interview that although insurance costs have gone up, he has not received any additional value, and medical premiums are really too expensive, more expensive than electricity and gas, which can be said to be more expensive than most family bills!
Daphne Laird was a very loyal customer of HCF, and she bought HCF insurance from an early age. But the premiums that her family had to pay were rising, which forced her to give up buying HCF. for years. Premiums are rising every year. The monthly premium paid by Daphne in May 2016 is $508.In April 2017, the premium rose to $544.40, and from April 1 this year, the premium has risen to $569 a month!
"I gave it up because you sat down and thought about it," she said. Think of five or six thousand dollars a year, and if we don`t give it to HCF, we can do much more with the money. "
Norman Lawrence, a 77-year-old retired man, shared the pain of Paul and Daphne. He has been buying AHM insurance at the highest premium for 47 years. He used to pay $226 a month, now $236.Norman thinks, given the current situation and the rising cost of private health care, using the public health care system instead of buying private health care might make him feel better. But he also worries that his emphysema may not be properly treated if he changes to public health care.
"fortunately, my pension can still help me, but it`s slowly running out, and it worries me," he said. I may not be able to pay my medical premiums in the future, and I fear that if I have to cancel my private insurance, I won`t get the proper treatment I need. "
Life has been so difficult, private health insurance premiums are still rising year by year, public health care is a bit overburdened, and there is news that the government plan to increase Medicare levy, this is a bolt from the blue!
The Medicare Levy is the legendary Medicare tax, which you don`t have to pay if you buy a sufficient amount of private health insurance, although how much you pay is linked to income.
The higher tax rate means that those who want to use public health insurance only because they cannot afford to pay for their rising private health insurance will have to pay more health tax in addition to having to face serious illness without better protection.
Thankfully, Australia`s government announced today that it had lifted the Medicare tax rate, which meant that Australian households could save $600 a year. The chancellor, Scott Morrison, cancelled plans to raise the Medicare tax from 2% to 2.5% next year, after failing to pass the Senate tax increase.
The Medicare tax increase was due to take effect next year. Families earning $60, 000 a year would have had to pay $600 more, while couples earning $ one hundred and forty thousand a year would have had to pay about $700 more a year. The cancellation of the plan will cost government $8.2 billion in revenue.
Morrison said that because of economic growth, government can fully pay for the all-Australian disability insurance plan, so that the burden on families can be reduced. The increase in fiscal revenue was helped by stronger commodity prices and improved business conditions.
"We have to let all Australians share the benefits of growth, and a stronger economy provides a stronger budget. The business environment was also very strong, prompting a surge in non-mining investment, up 12.4 percent in the 12 months to December 2017-the biggest gain in a decade.
Fortunately, Medicare Levy did not rise, otherwise it really can not afford to be ill.
