| Rebate is bad health policy
Your editorial (C-M Feb 7) correctly identifies policy failure by the Federal Government in the area of private health insurance. However, there is no evidence to suggest that stimulating demand for private health cover was necessary to save the public health system from collapse. The private system has always been ancillary to the public system and, whether desirable or not, its work could be taken over by the public system if the latter was sufficiently funded. The real policy failure was that the Government introduced the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate as a means to channel taxpayers' money from the public system into the private system. It worked. According to an Australia Institute report last year, half of the $2.3 billion subsidy went to the top 20 per cent of taxpayers. This is the grossest form of welfare handout to the rich that Australia has seen for a long time. Howard fooled a lot of people into believing that you help the poor who are sick by giving public money to the wealthy. Bad health policy should be seen for what it is. The rebate should be scrapped Theo van Lieshout |
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