Sick Fall Back on Super

By Sue Dunlevy

Tens of thousands of Australians had to raid more than $100 million from their superannuation savings to pay for medical bills in the past three years after health funds and Medicare failed to cover the full cost of treatment.

Department of Human Services data obtained by The Sunday Mail show 14,000 Australians applied to access superannuation savings to pay for medical costs and 8000 people were given access to $79 million in payouts.

Another 1700 people with a terminal illness claimed a further $19 million in early superannuation payouts and $12 million was paid to allow more than 1000 people with a disability to modify their homes or vehicles.

The growing call on superannuation savings to pay medical bills has laid bare a growing health funding crisis.

Breast cancer patient Leonie Havnen, who had to raid her superannuation to pay $31,000 in medical bills, has written to health Minister Tanya Plibersek complaining about the six-month fight she faced to access the money.

"It was an extremely distressing time," she wrote.

"To have to deal with the bureaucratic red tape was exhausting which caused me great anxiety."

She is asking the minister to streamline the process for sick people applying for superannuation funds to be released.

And she says the government must introduce a medical safety net so "people like myself do not have to access their superannuation, extend home mortgages, take out personal loans or declare bankruptcy in meeting the spiralling costs of life-saving treament who go through the private health."

George Institute academic Beverley Essue, who has been studying the way health costs are forcing some people into poverty, says there should be incentives to get specialists to bulk-bill and suggests the Medicare and pharmaceutical safety nets need improving.

Consumers Health Forum chief Carol Bennett said it was a "sad indictment" on the health system that people were being forced to use their lifetime retirement savings.