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CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer and Copyright Details
Veterans' Entitlements Amendment (Gold
Card) Bill 1998
Date Introduced: 3 June 1998
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Veterans' Affairs
Commencement: 1 January 1999
To extend full
repatriation health care benefits (the Gold Card) to Australian
veterans who are aged 70 or over and who have World War II
qualifying service.
The Gold Card is the popular name for the
'Repatriation Health Card - For All Conditions' which is issued by
the Department of Veterans' Affairs. This card enables the holder
to access the full range of repatriation health care benefits. The
health care benefits available to holders of the Gold Card are
equivalent to top of the range cover in a private health fund. The
benefits include treatment as a private patient in a public or
private hospital, choice of doctor, pharmaceuticals at the
concessional rate, optical care, physiotherapy, dental care,
podiatry and chiropractic services. The benefits are for all
medical conditions, irrespective of whether the conditions resulted
from war service. The Gold Card also entitles veterans to transport
to and from their medical treatment.
There are 257 639 veterans and their dependants
already receiving the Gold Card,(1) of whom 135 000 are World War
II veterans(2). The Gold Card is not issued to all veterans. At
present the following groups are eligible:
- All veterans and nurses of World War I
- All prisoners of war
- All female World War II veterans
- All veterans receiving 100% or more disability pension
- All veterans receiving 50%+ disability pension and any amount
of service pension
- Veterans who receive a service pension and qualify for
treatment under the income and assets test
- War widows, war widowers and dependant children.
The Government estimates that this measure will
make a further 50 000 male World War II veterans eligible. It is
anticipated by the Department of Veterans Affairs that most of
these veterans will be self-funded retirees. At present some may be
receiving a level of service pension but have not qualified for
health care under the current income and assets test. The average
age of World War II veterans is 76.5 years.
Who will miss out?
- Veterans of World War II who are under the age of 70 on 1
January 1999 will not be entitled to the Gold Card until their
70th birthday. Given that it is almost 54 years since
the end of World War II, only those servicemen who enlisted at a
very young age will miss out. No numbers are available, but popular
legend has it that a small number of midshipmen enlisted at the age
of 14 and served in an area of hostile enemy action during World
War II. However, the numbers are expected to be extremely small.
The imposition of an age limit is unusual. When free medical
treatment was provided to World War I veterans in 1973, no age
barrier was imposed. Similarly, in 1988, the Gold Card was provided
to female veterans of World War II without an age limit. Given the
very small number of veterans involved, the age limit may be
unnecessary.
- Veterans who do not meet the service criteria. Qualifying
service is defined in Section 7A of the Veterans' Entitlements
Act 1986. The major test for qualifying service is that the
veteran has, in operations against the enemy, 'incurred danger from
hostile forces of the enemy'. Most World War II veterans have this
qualifying service as a result of their service outside Australia
during the period of hostilities from 3 September 1939 to 29
October 1945 inclusive. Certain World War II service within
Australia while in danger from hostile forces of the enemy is also
classified as qualifying service. Veterans who do not meet the
criteria for qualifying service include servicemen who enlisted to
serve but were not sent overseas and were not in an area of
Australia that came under hostile enemy action. Some veterans
enlisted during World War II, served within Australia and later
served in Korea. These people may now be aged more than 70 years,
but they will not be eligible for the Gold Card under these
arrangements.
- Allied and Commonwealth veterans who served with a Commonwealth
or Allied force during World War II will not be eligible, unless
they actually lived in Australia before enlisting in Commonwealth
or Allied forces.
Costs
It is estimated that to extend full repatriation
health care to eligible World War II veterans will cost an
additional $480 million over 4 years. $95.7 million is budgeted for
1998-1999. As a consequence of this initiative, funding for some
medical and pharmaceutical payments currently being made to World
War II veterans by the Department of Health and Family Services
will be reduced.(3)
Impact on private health
insurance
Eligible veterans who presently have private
health insurance will find that the Gold Card provides
comprehensive health care coverage, and may decide to relinquish
their private health insurance after 1 January 1999. World War II
veterans on waiting lists for operations in public hospitals will
be eligible for private hospital care after 1 January 1999.
Comments
The extension of the Gold Card was announced by
the Prime Minister, Hon John Howard MP, on 27 April 1998.(4) It has
received almost universal approval. The RSL applauded the
Government for its recognition of the contribution made by World
War II veterans, saying that:
Veterans of World War I received an
automatic entitlement to the Gold Card 55 years after the end of
that war. It is now timely and fair that our veterans of the Second
World War be similarly recognised for their outstanding commitment
and sacrifice to Australia...
We would expect similar arrangements
to apply to veterans of subsequent conflicts as they reach their
senior years.(5)
However, Peter Walsh, writing in the
Australian Financial Review on 26 May 1998 questioned
whether Australia should be extending coverage of the Gold Card to
all eligible World War II veterans. He wrote that:
Fifty thousand old diggers will get
gold-plated medical services for nothing, even if they are
millionaires...Lest the RSL be annoyed by this criticism, I remind
it that affluent World War II soldiers who have already died -
about half I understand - did not receive such benefits.
If Australia could not afford them
when it paid its way in the world, we cannot afford them now, let
alone the multitude of other claims they will provoke.(6)
In supporting the extension of full repatriation
health care benefits to eligible World War II veterans, the Shadow
Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Laurie Ferguson MP, stated
that:
Whilst the opposition is happy to
consider sound proposals, it would be unsustainable to constantly
extend the gold card to more and more groups. Apart from anything
else, such an approach could soon endanger the continuation of the
level of benefits enjoyed by current cardholders.(7)
Philosophy behind providing repatriation
benefits to veterans
The basic principles which have governed
Repatriation legislation in Australia were stated by Justice Toose
in his 1975 Report of the Independent Enquiry into the
Repatriation System.(8) They include:
- Australia is indebted to those who served it in time of war by
enlisting in the Armed Forces, thereby endangering their lives and
health and probably suffering economic loss
- As a consequence, the nation has a duty to ensure that those
who have served, together with their dependants, are properly cared
for
- Those who have served overseas or in a proclaimed theatre of
war, are likely to have encountered greater danger and/or more
arduous service than those who had home service and, accordingly,
they should have a more extensive cover
- Compensation and other benefits should be available as a matter
of right and not as a welfare hand-out, and in cases of doubt, the
doubt should be resolved in favour of those claiming to be
entitled.
Brief history of medical treatment cards
for returned service personnel
The Commonwealth's repatriation initiatives to
provide benefits and opportunities for service people and their
dependants began during World War I when it was recognised that
returned soldiers, and dependants of the dead and injured, would
require continued assistance in the form of pensions, medical care,
allowances for dependants and many other benefits.(9) Through
'repatriation'-a uniquely Australian use of the word which came to
mean all the assistance given to ex-service people, the nation was
able to recognise the sacrifice of the dead through assistance to
their families, and to help the living achieve an effective return
to civilian life. The provision of health care and benefits to
older veterans may be seen as part of Australia's ongoing
obligation to honour and reward those who served.
Entitlement to free medical treatment was
initially confined to service-related disabilities. However, from
1924 onwards, Commonwealth governments have progressively expanded
entitlement to treatment for non-service related disabilities to
certain prescribed categories of veterans and their dependants, and
to some civilians.
- In 1973 (55 years after the end of World War I) all Boer War
and World War I veterans were granted free universal medical care
through the provision of a Personal Treatment Entitlement Card
(PTEC), a fore-runner to the Gold Card.
- In 1974 free medical treatment was extended to all Australian
ex-prisoners of war, and to all ex-service personnel suffering from
cancer, whether or not their disease was related to their war
service.
- From 1 January 1998 all World War II ex-servicewomen were
provided with full medical treatment entitlements. This was in
response to a government initiated inquiry that highlighted the
disadvantages suffered by female World War II veterans. In
particular the review indicated that women had been paid less than
men throughout their war service and had not been eligible for the
same level of repatriation assistance after the war.
The effect of Item 1 of Schedule
1 is to amend Section 7A (which defines 'qualifying
service') so that it also applies to eligibility for a Gold Card
(Section 85) and eligibility for a Seniors Health Card (Section
118V). The Explanatory Memorandum states that the
amendment to section 118V corrects a 'minor technical deficiency'
in the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986.
Item 2 adds a new
subsection 85(4A) providing the criteria that will be used
to determine if a World War II veteran is eligible for full
repatriation health benefits. The criteria to be used are:
- the veteran is aged 70 or more, and
- the veteran must meet the criterion of 'eligible service' as
defined in section 7A, and that service must have occurred between
3 September 1939 and 29 October 1945 inclusive (the 'period of
hostilities' for World War II as defined in subsection 5B(1) of the
Principal Act).
New paragraph (4A)(c) provides
that a veteran is not eligible for treatment until he or she has
applied for the Gold Card or been notified by the Department of
Veterans' Affairs of eligibility.
- The figure comes from the Department of Veterans' Affairs and
is the number at 30 March 1998.
- Dept of Veterans' Affairs, News release, 27 April
1998.
- Budget Measures 1998-99, (Budget paper No. 2,
1998-99), 1-111.
- John Howard, Press release, 27 April 1998, 'Gold Card
boost for Australian World War II veterans'.
- RSL, Media Release, 27 April 1998, 'RSL applauds grant
of Gold Card to World War II veterans'.
- Peter Walsh, 'The folly of an overkill', Australian
Financial Review, 26 May 1998, 21.
- House of Representatives, Debates, 28 May 1998,
3915.
- Independent Enquiry into the Repatriation System,
Report, AGPS, Canberra, June 1975, Volume 3 Summary of
report, 4-5.
- Australian Soldiers' Repatriation Act 1917-1918.
Rosemary Bell
18 June 1988
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ISSN 1328-8091
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