Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is another bill that delivers on the election commitment of the Albanese government to increase the income limits for the Commonwealth seniors health card. This measure will take effect from 20 September 2022 and will ensure that more Australians qualify for the Commonwealth seniors health card, easing some of the cost of living pressures that so many seniors are currently facing.

The Commonwealth seniors health card is available to Australian residents or special category visa holders who have reached the age pension age or veteran pension age and do not receive a social security pension or benefit or veteran service pension or income support supplement due to their income and/or assets.

The Commonwealth seniors health card provides access to Australian government health concessions including: concessional co-payments for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme medicines; the concessional thresholds for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Safety Net and the Extended Medicare Safety Net; and bulk billed visits to a general practitioner, at the doctor's discretion.

Card holders may also be eligible for other concessions provided by state and territory governments or private businesses in areas such as public transport, ambulance services, utilities or council rates.

To qualify for the Commonwealth seniors health card, a person's adjusted taxable income, plus any deemed income from account based superannuation pensions, must not exceed the applicable income limits for the relevant tax year. Different income limits apply, depending on whether the person is single or a member of a couple. There are no asset tests for this card.

The current CSHC income limit for a single person is $57,761 per year. This bill increases that income element for singles to $90,000 a year. The single income limit also applies to a person who is a member of an illness separated couple, a member of a respite care couple, or a member of a couple whose partner is in jail.

The current Commonwealth seniors health card income limit for each member of a couple is currently $46,208 per year, or $92,416 for a couple combined. This bill increases the income limit for members of a couple to $72,000 per year, or $144,000 for a couple combined.

The amount of $639.60 will continue to be added to the income test limits for each dependent child. The dependent child amount is linked to the parenting payment single income test and will not be changed by this bill.

The Commonwealth seniors health card income test limits are indexed on 20 September each year, in line with the increases of the Consumer Price Index in the preceding 12 months to June. The increases to the income limits under this bill are equivalent to many years of annual indexation in a single step and will substitute for the annual indexation on 20 September 2022.

Annual indexation will recommence on 20 September 2023, ensuring the income limits continue to reflect cost-of-living increases into the future. The last time the income limits for the Commonwealth seniors health card were increased above indexation was in 2001, following which indexation ceased until 2014.

These changes are expected to allow more than 50,000 self-funded retirees to become newly eligible for the Commonwealth seniors health card.

The Commonwealth seniors health card has been in place since 1994 as a means of providing access to health concessions for self-funded retirees.

This is a very important move that will affect the lives of many self-funded retirees to deal with the cost of health care.

The bill helps to ease the cost-of-living pressures by allowing more self-funded retirees to access the Commonwealth concessions on medical and pharmaceutical benefits, including a reduced PBS co-payment. It will lower the PBS safety net and extended Medicare safety net thresholds. For example, instead of facing a PBS co-payment of $42.50, an eligible self-funded retiree will now pay a maximum of $6.80 for any medicines listed on the PBS.

The Commonwealth seniors health card also provides access to other concessions, of course, which many states and territories provide. So this will have a significant impact on the cost of living for so many senior Australians.

The Albanese government does take the cost-of-living pressures faced by our communities seriously, and we will continue to work in these practical examples, in practical ways, to support the Australian community, particularly our older Australians living with cost-of-living pressures.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.