Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

This Bill delivers on an election commitment of the Albanese Government to increase the income limits for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC). Taking effect from 20 September 2022, this will ensure more Australians qualify for the CSHC, easing some of the cost-of-living pressures people are facing.

The CSHC is available to Australian residents or special category visa holders who:

The CSHC provides access to Australian Government health concess10ns, 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).

Cardholders may also be eligible for additional 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 CSHC, a person's adjusted taxable income, plus any deemed income from account based superannuation pensions, must not exceed the applicable CSHC income limit for the relevant tax year.

Different income limits apply depending on whether the person is single or a member of a couple. There is no assets test for the card.

The current CSHC income limit for a single person is $57,761 per year. This Bill increases the income limit for singles to $90,000 per 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 gaol.

The current CSHC income limit for each member of a couple is currently $46,208 per year, or $92,416 for the 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.

An 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 CSHC income test limits are indexed on 20 September each year in line with increases in 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 annual indexation on 20 September 2022.

Annual indexation will re-commence 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 CSHC 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 CSHC.

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

Like other Australians, many self-funded retirees are facing increased cost of living pressures in the current economic environment.

This Bill helps to ease those pressures by allowing more self-funded retirees to access Commonwealth concessions on medical and pharmaceutical benefits, including a reduced PBS co-payment and lower PBS Safety Net and Extended Medicare Safety Net thresholds. For example instead of facing a PBS co-payment of$42.50, eligible self-funded retirees will now pay a maximum of $6.80 for any medicines listed on the PBS.

The CSHC also provides access to other concessions that may be provided by state and territory governments and private organisations.

The Albanese Government will continue to work tirelessly to support older Australians with cost of living pressures.

Debate adjourned.