Notes on the data: Income support

Health Care Card holders, June 2023

Policy context: Entitlement to an Australian Government Health Care Card (HCC) is used here as a proxy for low socioeconomic status. The HCC provides access to prescription medicines for cardholders and their dependants at greatly reduced cost, and free after a cost threshold is reached; access to bulk-billed GP appointments, at the discretion of the doctor (the Government provides financial incentives for GPs to bulk-bill concession card holders); and a reduction in the cost of out-of-hospital medical expenses, through the Medicare Safety Net threshold. The cards may also attract educational, recreational, transport or other concessions from state and local governments and third party providers.

People who have an HCC are, together with those with a Pensioner Concession Card, generally among the lowest income earners, and, as such, they are likely to also have poorer health. In 2003, it was reported that HCC holders were more likely to suffer chronic health problems (most chronic diseases and poorer oral health), including psychosocial problems (such as sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression), have more medications prescribed and receive less preventive care [1].

Reference

Charles J, Valenti L, Britt H. GP visits by health care card holders: a secondary analysis of data from Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH), a national study of general practice activity in Australia. Aust Fam Physician. 2003;32(1/2):85-88,94.

Notes: The Health Care Card is automatically issued to people who are not qualified for a Pensioner Concession Card (see separate note), and are receiving:

JobSeeker Payment, Partner Allowance, Sickness Allowance, Widow Allowance, Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY Living Allowance, Mobility Allowance, Special Benefit, or Parenting Payment (Partnered);
Carer Allowance (child);
Carer Payment (child) on a short-term or episodic basis;
Exceptional Circumstances Relief Payment, Farm Household Allowance, Family Tax Benefit Part A (by fortnightly instalments and whose family income is below the Family Tax Benefit Part A lower income free area).

A very small number of Local Government Areas (LGAs) have proportions in excess of 100%: these are clearly not accurate. The reason for this is not clear, although it may be the result of the address of the beneficiary not being allocated to the correct small geographical area by the correspondence files available; it may also reflect inaccuracies in the denominator (the population), as population estimates at the small area level for age groups can be unreliable. It also indicates that it is possible that percentages of less than 100% may also be overstated.

Population Health Area (PHA) data were derived from publicly-available data that were already suppressed at the Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2). Therefore, if a PHA included an SA2 with suppressed data, there could be an undercount in the PHA. However, the loss of counts due to the use of this data set was negligible (less than 0.01% lost). As State and Territory totals were also provided, data in the ‘Unknown’ data row in the Excel data workbooks are calculated from the difference between the sum of the PHA data and the State/Territory totals; these figures therefore include the sum of the suppressed SA2 cells. However, the loss of counts due to the use of this data set was negligible (less than 0.01% lost).

State and territory totals were also provided in the source data. Data in the ‘Unknown’ data row in the Excel data workbooks are calculated from the difference between the sum of the PHA data and the State/Territory totals and include the sum of these suppressed SA2 cells.

Data cells with counts of less than five were suppressed (confidentialised).

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: People in receipt of a Health Care Card from the Department of Human Services (Centrelink)

Denominator: People aged 0 to 64 years at 30 June 2022 (population data at June 2023 not available at time of publication)

Detail of analysis: Per cent

Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data from DSS Payment Demographic Data, June 2023, available from https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/dss-payment-demographic-data, accessed 20 December 2023, and Australian Bureau of Statistics Estimated Resident Population, 30 June 2022.