Journoz: Updates for Australian Journalists

Health and superannuation facts

With so much political bombardment of voters about Medicare, health and aged spending and whose handout is bigger than someone else's, two new reports may be timely for voters trying to sort fact from fiction. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has produced Health Expenditure Australia 2002-03 which gives the real picture of what was spent and what will be spent next. It's at http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10043. Also just out is NATSEM's look at superannuation lump sums. It asks the question: What happens between ages 50 and 69? Research by NATSEM shows the majority of Australians are contributing very little to the cost of their retirement. Since 1992, almost every employee has had superannuation put aside for them under the Superannuation Guarantee, so where does this superannuation go? There is a popular misconception that, on average, Australian retirees enjoy ‘the good life'. NATSEM's evidence contradicts this. Read more by following the links from http://www.apo.org.au/linkboard/results.chtml?filename_num=01796. Posted by belinda at October 7, 2004 12:11 PM

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