could someone please explain how this new Budget "picks on pensioners"?? The standard Shorten/ Jenny Macklin/ Plibersek sob?
In what way has the current age pension been "picked on"???
Family home still not touched/changes, as an asset?
Age requirement eligibility for age pension not to take any change till 2035? (May never happen!)
Co-payment for docs visits capped to maximum 10 - for pensioners. Many of whom attend hospital outpatients clinics - if having ongoing chronic health problems - entirely free.
The RSL dining rooms are full of happy chatty fairly (or very) well dressed pensioners - as are the pubs, good restaurants or cafes, the Tattslotto Jackpot queques. Where I've seen the elderly drop hundreds. Many still travel - here, or overseas. On their substantial super - which advantage many never had access to - moreso those who ran small business - yet employed many people. Superannuation now the national obsession. Some pensioners do it tough - no doubt. But let's stop this melodramatic emotive language.
Only beef I have, is that out of pocket Medicare Gap payments on medical specialists bills stay the same - though doctor's fees have rocketed up- quite dramatically. Pensioners or not. Gap payment is lousy, by comparison. Seemingly stays stagnant. This is NOT a new phenomenen. Has been the case for some time. (Why didn't Labor tackle it? Had six years to do so).
Perhaps the higher echelons of the private specialist medical profession could be persuaded to moderate their fees - or at least freeze them - help pull some of the weight, too! Some fees now getting outlandishly huge!
This aspect is putting huge stress on public hospitals' outpatients. Pensioners, or not - patients who decide to go public can often afford to pay Gaps- but only if fair, and reasonable.
