Advocacy groups say expanding the scope of the veterans “gold card” could take pressure off the Department of Veteran Affairs’ (DVA) and incentivise personnel to remain in the military.
The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Trade References Committee is soon to release a report into changes to veterans’ benefits with gold card access a consideration.
White Cards and Gold Cards?
Among the cards issued by DVA, the white card is for veterans who have sustained injuries or developed illnesses due to their service, while the gold card is for veterans who have permanently lost their ability to work due to service-related injuries or disabilities, as well as for certain family members of eligible veterans.
The white card covers treatment for accepted service-related and other conditions outlined under “Non-Liability Health Care” provisions, which include mental health conditions (e.g., PTSD, depression, anxiety), malignant neoplasm (cancer), and pulmonary tuberculosis.
The gold card offers more comprehensive coverage, including free treatment for all medical conditions, whether service-related or not.
This includes general practitioner (GP) services, specialist consultations, hospital care (public and private), dental and optical care, mental health services, and subsidised pharmaceuticals under the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
There is an the orange card, but that is for veterans of the Second World War, and provides concessions for prescription medicines, wound care items, and nutritional supplements.
According to the DVA’s statistics, as of June 2024, there are approximately 103,000 gold card holders and approximately 188,000 white card holders.
Doctor Says Too Many Veterans Missing Out on Care
Dr. Andrew Cronin, a founding member of Australian Veteran Health Services in Queensland, said there were “unique health challenges faced by many servicemen and women after leaving the military.”
“Whilst working as the only doctor in remote communities, I would often meet fellow veterans living with heartbreaking conditions. They didn’t know where to turn. They looked at me, not just as a doctor, but as someone who had also served,” said Cronin, previously an aeronautical engineer in the Royal Australian Air Force.
The doctor said most veterans were on a white card.
“If you’ve only got a white card and mental health conditions on it, then you won’t be able to get treatment for those other conditions if you don’t have a gold card,” he said.
“So if they got sick, we would actually go down as interns and junior doctors to see them, but then we’d have to call an ambulance for them to be sent over to either the Mater Hospital or the [Princess Alexandra] Hospital. So we couldn’t even treat them at the facility … It was very heartbreaking and frustrating.”
Cronin’s comments come as an earlier inquiry heard Australian veterans are still plagued by issues like mental health with 96 individuals taking their lives the past year.
Alleviate DVA Workload and Help With Retention: Veterans’ Advocate
Carissa Ibbott, director of Australian Veteran Advocacy, believes that other than reducing the amount of demand on the DVA, expanding the scope of the gold card could also encourage more personnel to stay in the military until the 20 year benchmark.
“If you were to have a gold card at 20 years of service, that would actually serve as a retention mechanism for people in service,” she told the committee.
“And most veterans that we deal with, if they were going to get a gold card after 20 years, they wouldn’t deal with DVA at all. They’re after their treatment. They’re after access to that.”
At present, the DVA continues to manage a substantial workload, receiving up to and sometimes exceeding 5,000 claims every two weeks.
According to department statistics, as of Sept. 30, the DVA had 87,477 claims on hand, with 19,993 unallocated and 67,484 being processed.
The average time taken to process Initial Liability claims under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act was 333 days, up from 307 days in the previous financial year.
This proposal about broadening access to the gold card aligns with ongoing discussions to simplifying veterans’ entitlements under the Veterans’ Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Bill 2024.
The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee is expected to release its report on this matter on Oct. 30.
