News24 - Afternoon Agenda

News24 - Afternoon Agenda Suzana Cameron Fri, 04/09/2026 - 16:56 TOM CONNELL, HOST: Joining me live now, Assistant Minister for Women, Health and Aged Care, Rebecca White. Thank you very much for your time. So, the government announcing its policy on reducing the increased rebate for over 65’s. The key part was this Treasury modelling that it would only mean 44,000 people stop private health insurance. The states say it'll be more. If it is a lot more than that, do you need to reconsider it, given it's a key part of justifying the policy? REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: It's not only a key part of justifying the policy, I think it speaks to the reasons we're doing this in the first place. And the Minister spoke about that in the package, Tom, it's about how we free up money to invest in areas where there is increasing demand and where states are asking us to make investment, specifically in more aged care beds. This is going to raise $3 billion that will be used to fund specifically aged care beds and more packages of care. And this is an area we know there is high demand. And I point to the mention the minister made of, where are the states expecting us to