Labor changes policy on private health insurance rebates for older Australians
Shadow Health Minister Nicola Roxon, in a speech to the Australian Health Insurance Industry Association, said that Labor accepts the role of a strong private health sector and supports higher rebates for older health fund members, dropping the party’s opposition to higher health insurance rebates to the over-65s.
She said that Labor accepts the role of a strong private health sector and that a major challenge facing government was to bring the best of the public and private systems together, working in the most effective way possible, to bring costs down and quality up for all patients.
She told the private health funds that at the ALP national conference later in April the party would move to excise from its platform a provision opposing growth in private care at the expense of the public system.
