Tax reform should focus on shoring up the Government's revenue base first of all. Older people have suffered greatly as a result of expenditure cuts in the past few years in important programs. We need to see some funds flow back into important programs such as Home and Community Care and dental care. One of older people's greatest concerns is that compensations will be quickly eroded by inflation or by government pushing up the rate of the GST at a later date. It will be hard for the Government to convince older people that the GST will be in their interest.
Health care is one of the most important public policy issues for older people.
The Government's focus in this area in the budget is welcome, says Mr Denys Correll, COTA's National Director. We are pleased to see that around 220,000 non-pensioner older Australians will benefit from the lifting of the income test for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. This will especially help those non-pensioners with high needs for pharmaceuticals. We also welcome the education and research program to curb usage of prescription drugs. This is an area in which COTA has run a number of Australia-wide projects as we believe that there is considerable inappropriate prescribing for older people.