15th Mar 2012, 6:04 PM – Senate Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill 2012 and related bills - Second Reading - Read a second time

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bills for a second time.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) This means that the majority agree with the main idea of the bills.

The bills are:

• Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill 2012;
• Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives (Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2012; and
• Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives (Medicare Levy Surcharge—Fringe Benefits) Bill 2012.

Background to the bills

The three bills were introduced as a package to reduce the private health insurance rebate and increase the Medicare levy surcharge for certain taxpayers. To this end, the bills:

• create three private health insurance tiers with different levels of private health insurance rebate to reduce the amount of rebate eligible taxpayers with complying private health insurance are entitled to when their income for surcharge purposes is above the relevant Medicare levy surcharge threshold;(Read more about the Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill 2012 in its bills digest.

)

• increase the rate of Medicare levy surcharge for certain taxpayers who do not have complying health insurance and whose income for surcharge purposes is above the relevant Medicare levy surcharge threshold;(Read more about the Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives (Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2012 in its bills digest.

)

• increase the rate of Medicare levy surcharge for taxpayers who do not have complying health insurance and whose income (including reportable fringe benefits) for surcharge purposes is above the relevant Medicare levy surcharge threshold.(Read more about the Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives (Medicare Levy Surcharge—Fringe Benefits) Bill 2012 in its bills digest.)