What the Year Holds in Higher Charges And How to Beat Them

The New Year always dawns with the news of government services thoughtfully jacking up fees and charges and altering the rules when we are least aware.

Post and pharmaceuticals costs have already changed and big ‘reforms’ are afoot for health insurance. Some pension rules have been tweaked, but the major eligibility changes are now just 12 months away.

Given forewarned is forearmed here are some tips around the changes which might effect you and what, if anything, you can do to avoid or at least mitigate any pain.

As this is going to be an election year, where policies around retirement incomes are going to be centre stage, it pays to know what’s happening.

First off the three Ps—Post, Pensions and Pharmaceuticals:

Post

Basic letter service stamps, as you probably know, have gone up from 70c to $1 while to keep the postie sustainable the speed has also dropped.

To get the same delivery deadlines we used to get for 70c will now involve buying a $1 stamp and a 50c priority label so whatever Australia Post claim about the service ‘evolving’ it’s costing substantially more for less.

Concession card holders can get up to 50 stamps a year at 60c but you have to register online! Tough for those who choose to use letters because they don’t have, or don’t like, computers.

It’s hard to get around as even the Christmas stamps, which will remain at 65c, might arouse suspicions is posted in July.

Best to plan and  post ahead and avoid that 50c speed surcharge or, as perhaps is the intent, prepare to use email even more.

Pensions

Only a small group is affected this year but for 300,000 more the big changes are on the horizon with less than 300 days to go.

For retired federal and state public servants, and those who get defined benefit superannuation pensions from larger companies, the income test for the age pension has changed.

Check with a reliable source to see if it changes your income.

In January next year the much larger changes over pension eligibility kick in and the FiftyUp Club will have more on this as the deadline looms.

The best advice here is to seek competent and trustworthy financial advice from a fee-for-service professional. Again I hope we’ll have more help for you in this area over the year.

Pharmaceuticals and the PBS

The good news is we can save money by buying certain painkillers and medicines over the counter as opposed to being charged even more as a concession card holder using the PBS or pharmaceutical benefits scheme.

The media has been dominated by fears of one particular  brand,  Panadol Osteo, which will go up 50% as a result of being delisted from the PBS.

Suffice to say with this painkiller there are generic and far lower cost alternative drugs which contain just the same active ingredients.

There’s also a $1 discount chemists can give for the first time on the co-payment patients make on their prescription medicines. For pensioners this means a buck saved on the $6.20 charge, and for the rest of us the same saving on $38.30.

It’s mainly the big discount chemist chains who’ll offer the discount. On this issue and the cost of the newly delisted medicines ask your pharmacist or check out government websites for independent advice.

Postscript

The final ‘P’ concerns private health insurance. There are plenty of reviews and reports which aim to change some of the ground rules around Medicare, rebates, policies etc.

The costs as we all know are going up and the government has less money meaning consumers will be expected to pay more.

The one thing we can be sure of is that in April premiums will be hiked by an amount far above the general rate of consumer prices.

At the same time the 30% rebate for health insurance, which has been means tested for some years, also falls in value to some 25% increasing the cost significantly.

It’s a bit late to wish you Happy New Year especially after a whole swag of news about higher costs and charges. But the idea behind The FiftyUp Club is we share useful information and also use our aggregated bargaining power to get better offers. You only have to join up or join in. We believe it’s worth it.