00:01New South Wales has done some modelling that they could see in their public hospitals up
00:06to an extra 23,000 surgeries a year as a result of these proposed changes to the private health
00:14insurance rebate. They're also saying that across their state alone, there could be 80,000
00:20older Australians who either ditch their cover or reduce it as a result of what Mark Butler,
00:26the federal health minister is proposing. So to sort of walk you back through that, the federal
00:31government thinks it can save around $3 billion over four years by changing this rebate and
00:37investing that into aged care. So essentially, if you're 65 and over, you get a bigger rebate than
00:44someone who's on the same income as you, but is younger than you. So the government wants to make
00:49it kind of all equal across age brackets. So, you know, everyone's getting the same rebate, but it
00:55could see some older people paying kind of roughly $240 more a year. So as you can imagine,
01:01there's been a lot of pushback in response to that, including from state and territories,
01:06because they're worried this is then going to bleed into the public hospital system,
01:10like we're hearing from New South Wales, and put extra pressure on them. So going into this
01:16health meeting this morning, interestingly, the federal government is kind of facing this
01:20double whammy over this situation today, because there's also a Senate inquiry looking into this,
01:25and a lot of people are very critical of it. The COTA, which is like one of the peak bodies
01:31representing older people, they're concerned that of these 3 million Australians that will be paying
01:36higher fees, 1.2 million are pensioners. So worried about what that will mean for them,
01:42and also putting that extra strain on the public hospital system. And then Catholic Health Australia,
01:47too, is saying there could be hundreds of thousands of older people around the country that will give
01:54up their health insurance or reduce it. So a different number than the one the federal government's
02:00putting forward of around 44,000 people giving up. They're saying when you take in everyone that's
02:04going to reduce their cover, it is a lot more. Saying too, from Catholic Health Australia, that it could
02:10even lead to the closure of a public, sorry, of a private hospital in New South Wales that they flag
02:17in their submission to. So getting heat from the Senate inquiry and from ministers around the country,
02:22Kath, so it'll be one to watch. But the federal government has been insistent that this change
02:26is for the better to make it fairer and to invest that money elsewhere.
