There are rumours that the government is going to cut the private health insurance rebate. If that happened, it might be my favourite real policy the government has done. That's is not just a regressive policy but it's totally inefficient. Not only is it getting those without private health insurance (the poor) to pay for the health care of those with private health insurance (the rich) but I'm not sure it even saved any money.
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Right! I’m sure it DIDN’T save any money.
Jason Grossman / 2:36pm / 8 May 2009
i don’t really know much about the system, but i have to disagree with the generalisation that the rich are the ones with private cover and the poor are the ones without. sure it’s probably mostly that way, but a lot of people scrimp to be able to pay for private cover.
jenny / 7:58am / 9 May 2009
Obviously not every person who has private insurance is rich, but it’s overwhelmingly a rich person’s habit. But generalisations can still be truthful without applying to every case.
It’s not strictly true that it’s a regressive policy. Because rich people pay a lot more tax than poor people and it comes out of general taxation. However, it probably counts as upper-middle class welfare, which is a way of making the tax system less progressive. Which you can kind of call regressive.
Ryan / 9:30pm / 9 May 2009
I wouldn’t even call it a “rich” person’s habit …
A) It’s a service consumed – not a habit.
B) It is a service that the employed are more likely to have than the unemployed.
C) The “rich” – and God knows we could argue about how to define that! – in my mind are rich enough that they do NOT have private insurance. They simply purchase a doctor to be at their beck and call. Why bother with insurance??
Anonymous / 9:40am / 21 May 2009
I suspect that, however you decide to define “rich”, they will have more private health insurance than the poor. And more importantly they will have better health care generally.
I don’t like it that people with more money can buy themselves better health care. But I really, really don’t like it when the government subsidises people with more money to buy themselves even better health care.
Ryan / 1:55pm / 21 May 2009