EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1989 No. 293
Issued by the authority of the Minister of State for Community Services and Health
Subject - Health Insurance Act 1973
Health Insurance Regulations (Amendment)
The purpose of the proposed regulation is to provide a method of allowing the annual income already declared to the Secretary to the Department of Social Security for the purposes of payment of Family Allowance Supplement, to be used in the income test for the provision of health care cards.
Subsection 5B(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 provides that the Secretary to the Department of Social Security can declare persons to be disadvantaged. This results in the issue of a health care card. The decision is made having regard to income of the person in the prescribed period of four weeks preceding lodgement of an application. This is known as the four weekly income test.
Subsection 5B(11) of the Health Insurance Act provides that the regulations may make provision for methods of ascertaining income of the person for the ‘prescribed period’ in subsection 5B(12).
If the new method would allow the person to qualify as disadvantaged, the new method would apply. Otherwise the four weekly income test would be applied.