Means test to end

Press, 15 October 1976, Page 18

Means test to end

PA Auckland The Government plans to abolish the controversial geriatric means test and replace it with an income test that will ease rhe burden of the elderly sick, according to the Minister of Health (Mr Gill). Under the income test, said Mr Gill, it would not matter what savings or assets a person had, as his right to enter a geriatric hospital would be based solely on his or her income. The means test, which has been applied only in Auckland, where hospital beds are hardest to come by, allows only those people with total assets of $6OO or less to enter geriatric hospitals. If an elderly person falls ill and has to enter a hospital, that person has to pay for internment in a

private hospital until his or her total assets dwindle to S6OO. But, under the income test, an elderly person with property assets and/or a lot of savings in the bank could gain entry to a geriatric hospital — where the bills were paid by the Government — as long as his or her income did not exceed a certain level. Mr Gill said he could not say what that level would be. Nor could he say when the present means test would be abolished.

“We will not mind how much they own or have in the bank,” he said. “Under the income test, if they can afford to pay, they will continue to do so. But if they cannot afford to, then the Government will authorise a hospital board to pay their accounts.”

All forms of income, such as dividends and superannuation, would be included in the income test.

“Why should these people who have worked all their lives to get a nest-egg have to spend it all when they fall sick and then get no help from the Government until they have spent it?” Mr Gill said. He could not say when the new test would be introduced, but said that an announcement would be made soon.