Medicare levy hike to pay for the NDIS :(

[nero_bolt]

THE average worker could be hit with an increased Medicare levy of about $300 a year in next month's budget to help pay for the national disability insurance scheme.

The federal government is seriously considering increasing the Medicare levy from 1.5 to 2 per cent after Prime Minister Julia Gillard warned "urgent and grave" decisions were needed to cope with a $12 billion hit to tax revenue.

The Daily Telegraph understands while the higher Medicare levy would be presented as a reasonable form of "insurance" to protect families from the huge costs of coping with a disability, no final decision has been made whether to include it in the May 14 budget.

Ms Gillard will face attacks that it is another broken promise after she last year ruled out increasing the Medicare levy to pay for DisabilityCare

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/medicare-levy-hike-to-pay-for-the-national-disability-insurance-scheme/story-e6freuy9-1226631862091

[freakiness]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

[newstart2380]

You know what is even sadder??? 

NDIS will not be available to people over 65 I believe.... 

Yet it is going to be many older people that have worked hard for a good income and are in the final years of working that will be paying this levy... yet if they become disabled when they get older they will get no benefit... and many people do become disabled from strokes and heart attacks... 

Younger people on lower incomes won't pay it... they don't even pay tax... yet if they become disabled they will be eligible for the rest of their lives. 

Once again it will be the wealthy that pay yet don't benefit. 

Just digressing a little about the over 65's, I will not be eligible for a pension and I don't have a problem with that because I do not expect to be supported if I am able to support myself.

BUT, (bad grammar I know) any person of pension age should be able to take advantage of the benefits a pension card offers.

[izabsmiling]

We are going to get cuts which is what so many have wanted here for so long.

Instead of thinking it a reasonable thing ...you again use it to your advantage.

The toughest decisions will be where the savings come from....I hope wise decisions are made.If not we are in trouble.We have invested in our future..I would hate to see that lost and not see the return that we may have seen 'long term' as a result of money spend.

[izabsmiling]

Over $50 000...my OH will pay.

We also care for a disabled adult .

[izabsmiling]

We don't mind the extra $300 if that is what it is.We know how much is needed.

[lightningdance]

There is no lie she won't utter, no gutter she doesn't like, no base level she doesn't covet. 

What damage will she inflict on workers to get her "legacy" up? What will she rob to make herself look good & responsible?? newsflash, there is nothing she can do or say now that she hasn't exposed herself to that will save her from the derision & outrage she deserves.

The tainted legacy of an infected PM with a loser gene, who has driven this country into debt levels the like we have never seen before & will take decades to get out of, if ever.

This is the legacy she will leave, the legacy she & her cohorts will be remembered for.

The useful idiots are the one's who should share the blame for this catastrophe, the lab luvvies who voted her in, spread their support on every post that has even a hint of criticism of this failed experiment.

When they can't defend it they resort to the racist card or smear campaigns like that other disgusting thread they all seemed so confortable & at home on.

[bella_again]

So tell me what would you do?  Leave our young disabled in the situation that they are now with no where to go when their parents die. There is little housing available and few services. Or worse a young person becomes disabled and is left to rot away in a nursing home.  There are few services for these people.

What should the government do then?

when families are so desperate they can hardly function.  The grief and guilt they feel when they know they are leaving behind their children in a world that can't relate and won't support them.

Quite frankly most people spend more on coffee a year. It's a small price to pay to see our most vulnerable cared for.

[izabsmiling]

The poor tax payers having to pay money to help the disabled.How hard that must be .

[izabsmiling]

Quite frankly most people spend more on coffee a year. It's a small price to pay to see our most vulnerable cared for.

I totally agree Bella...

and much cheaper than 24/7 professional care 

[izabsmiling]

How could you possibly think anyone would say education reform and caring for families with a person with a disability is a waste, the waste is what JG and WS did when all the money was squandered.

NS, I have been reading the threads and OP's c&p's...

I as a parent of a school aged children and a carer of a disabled son have been disgusted at how the Gonski and NDIS have been used as if they don't affect real people