A pre-Easter message from our Chairman
Dear Fellow Members,
Well, I asked you to speak up and sign our petition on the higher costs we get slugged on health insurance … and boy, did you listen.
We smashed our target of 10,000 within the first 48 hours, which meant we had to reset our target to 15,000.
At the moment we are sitting on around 12,500, and we close the petition tomorrow.
So this is our last chance for a big spurt to the finish line!
Please urge your family and friends to go to FiftyUp Club and sign the petition.
In the coming weeks I will then take the petition to Health Minister Peter Dutton, asking him for age-specific data on health insurance, to be more transparent.
We want to make it the duty of the government of day to inform us about how much our premiums go up every year so we can make informed choices.
Hopefully I will get to him before Federal Budget is handed down on May 13th.
Speaking of the Budget, there’s been much speculation about the raising of taxes and charges, as well as cuts in spending in an effort to return to surplus.
There’s also been a lot of information and misinformation about raising the age of the pension. Most of it has come from Treasurer Joe Hockey’s office. In my experience it’s not unusual for governments to leak bad news ahead of any budget to take some steam out of the issue.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has since announced he will keep his pre-election pledge that there would be no changes to the aged pension in this term of government.
But the mechanism is already in place for the pension age to go up from 65 to 67 and it will probably be lifted to 70 in future decades… and that’s prompted new speculation of “double dipping”, where retirees use their super until the new retirement age, then go on the pension.
In a nutshell, it means those of us who are FiftyUp will get slugged again at some point in the future – the question is when.
I can assure you the dedicated team here at the Club have already begun work on a campaign to stick up for members. I will keep you posted.
Meantime, on a lighter note, it’s coming on Easter … a time when we gather with our children and grandchildren and reflect on the positive and fortunate things we have in life.
From all of us here at the FiftyUp Club, please have a safe and happy Easter,
Warmest Regards,
John
PS – I’ve started a new conversation in the FiftyUp Club forum asking you what we can do to create better special offers for you and make switching easier – so click here to have your say.
Twitter: @johnmangos
