BY JON SINGER
The Australia Institute released a report on September 25 that shows nearly half of the federal government's $2.3 billion private health insurance rebate went to the top third of income earners, while the bottom third received just 18%.
Government policies on health insurance provide the private health insurance companies more budgetary assistance than that provided to mining, manufacturing and agricultural industries combined, according to the report.
The report's author, Julie Smith, argued the rebate was an ineffective and wasteful way to fund health care and was using money that would otherwise be available to the public health sector. She recommended abolition of the rebate.
The same day, ALP leader Kim Beazley announced the rebate would continue under a future federal Labor government. This is despite ALP health spokesperson Jenny Macklin in 1998 calling the rebate "the worst example of public policy ever seen in [federal] parliament". Beazley had called it a "monumental failure".