Treasurers from both major parties have ruled out increasing the Medicare Levy to control the spiralling cost of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which will hit $60 billion-a-year (US$42.7 billion) by 2030 and has pipped the budget of universal healthcare program Medicare.
During the Treasurers Debate on May 4, incumbent Coalition Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and his counterpart, Labor’s Jim Chalmers, vowed to continue supporting the program but conceded the costs were high.
The current treasurer said the NDIS accounted for around 1.2 percent of the economy and would rise to 1.5 percent of GDP in the coming years.
“We need to continue to fund this scheme, and we will continue to provide those services even as it becomes more expensive,” he said.
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