Medicare discrimination against gay couples will be eliminated from next year with plans to give same sex couples and their children equal rights to Medicare and PBS safety net thresholds, the government has announced.
At the moment, same-sex couples are not considered a family but as two individuals for the safety nets. Likewise, children of same-sex couples are treated as the family member of only one of the parents, creating an additional financial burden by not having everyone included in each safety net.
But new legislation to come into effect from 1 January 2009 will redefine couples and families in the national health and health Insurance acts so that “people in same sex relationships will have access to the same financial entitlements as couples who are either married or in de-facto relationships,” says Medicare Australia.
Medicare has also announced that restrictions on reversal of elective sterilisation have been removed from 1 July to allow fertility restoration.
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