The well off don't need a rebate for private health insurance.  You are among the top 10 percent of income earners, therefore don't need the rebate.  Having said that though, what I would suggest is that you should try and make a budget.  I  think it would be good for you, and you might be pleasantly surprised if you do.   

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Feb 16^th, 2012 at 9:46am:


Thanks, A.H. You raise some very interesting points.

You have said many times that people don't have "entitlements". You've worked hard all your life without government assistance and expect others to do the same.

You've also said you don't "pay in" through the tax system. You've made a point of this in many threads. And given you're based in the US, how could you?

The deadbeats who are let into this country are let in, on the whole, to become wage earners. They pay income tax, and the business lobbies fight the government hard to let them all in.

One hand washes the other: businesses get workers, and the government gets tax.

Political parties are kept happy too, and often put their support behind certain groups of immigrants who they think will vote for them: a key reason Malcolm Fraser supported anti-communist Vietnamese refugees in the 1980s, but not related to this argument.

Still, on the whole, these people have done it pretty hard. You've never had to flee with your life, leave everything behind, and start again in another country. You went to university, got a job, and settled in a gated community in a country with historically low tax rates for upper income earners.

Vietnamese workers and businesses pay income and business tax. You don't.

On the face of it, which "demographic" is turning this country into a basket case?

BigOl64 wrote on Feb 16^th, 2012 at 11:10am:


Why would you? The rebate was designed purely as a reward to the health insurers for their support of the Liberal Party.

Having private health insurance does not take people out of the public hospital system, even if they do claim. Doctors still need to treat you in public hospitals. Emergency care is still given in public hospitals.

And given the out-of-pocket expense of private health care, many go with the public system anyway.

On a cost-benefit analysis, public health is the best way to go. Australian medical care is reliant on public hospitals. Without them, the private system would cease to function.

Dirty Paki Khunt wrote on Feb 16^th, 2012 at 11:20am:



Well karnal, the rebate subsidised my health insurance costs when the insurers jacked up their prices. Now that I'm about to lose it, the prices will remain the same or higher and i will no longer be subsidised. See how that would normally have a financially adverse effect on myself.


So now it is no longer a reward for the insurers, it is a punishment for the financially self reliant.

Dirty Paki Khunt wrote on Feb 16^th, 2012 at 11:32am:


Yes that they get utterly shafted by a Government that hates them in a time when they are struggling to get by.

High interest rates, high cost of living, salary downward pressure, high energy prices.

I know let's reduce their tax rebate further.....

Fking arseholes, I have always hated Labor for this reason.
Support scum but leave decent people high and dry.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Feb 16^th, 2012 at 11:34am:


Now now, we don't want to start a class war here, A.H.

The health system just cannot afford to pay people to have private health insurance (that makes billions of dollars

profit

) while the public system is broken.....Trying to spew the line that thousands of people will suddenly swamp emergency wards or hospitals will suddenly not be able to cope is just scare mongering bullshit!!!