[Insufficient Details for Upcoming Deal] 10 Free Rapid Antigen Tests for Pensioners & Low Income Health Card Holders @Pharmacies

havebeerbelywillsumo on 06/01/2022 - 01:34
Last edited 06/01/2022 - 09:30 by 2 other users

Moved to Forum: Original Link

This is simply a public service announcement for pensioners (various types eligible)

Just announced today 06-01-2022, this afternoon, so details a bit sketchy………(and I know kits are virtually impossible to get over the counter at the moment - says government thinks they can solve that over a 2 week timeframe). Appears you need to visit a pharmacy with your pension card (various pension style schemes are eligible, you'll need to check), pharmacy takes those details and gives you a kit. Details go off to government who reimburse pharmacy.

Total number appears to be limited to 2 tranches of 5 tests (max 5 tests per month).

This would be a godsend for me as I can use it PLUS still-at-home kids could use them

National Cabinet agreed that up to 10 Rapid Antigen Tests over three months (a maximum of 5 in a month) will be made available free through pharmacies to people holding the following cards:

Pension Concession Card
Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card
Department of Veterans' Affairs Gold, White or Orange Card
Health Care Card
Low Income Health Card

Mod: Deal Posted Moved to Forums [Insufficient Details for Upcoming Deal] - As the start date is undefined ("available in the next 2 weeks"), the deal is unpublished due to our Insufficient Details for Upcoming Deals. It can be posted again in the future once details and the start date is finalised. We have moved this post to the forums to retain discussion, rather than unpublishing it as we usually would.

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Comments

          • Raymond92 on 06/01/2022 - 08:12
            +2

            @choumada: Clinics are getting paid 100 to 150 a test from the government ..

            • SBOB on 06/01/2022 - 08:28
              -1

              @Raymond92:

              Clinics are getting paid 100 to 150 a test from the government ..

              but PCR tests aren't done on a per-person basis
              They are batched (though with the high positive case rate recently, this does decrease the effectiveness of grouping samples)

        • tamckinnon on 06/01/2022 - 09:13
          +2

          That's not true - They are charged to Medicare at $75 - login to yours and have a look.

        • arcticmonkey on 06/01/2022 - 13:37

          That $100 is underquoting. There is also staff costs, facility hire, electricity, supplies (other than the test) and so much more.

      • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 06:26
        +2

        People not being allowed to got to work due to not having a test and businesses closing down and supply chains getting disrupted due to insufficient staff and employees waiting on tests would be a bigger hit in terms of devaluing dollars.

      • snoopydoop on 06/01/2022 - 07:44
        +4

        It costs way more to have people admitted to hospital when the virus spreads faster than it needs to due to lack of testing. Or even just the economic cost of more people isolating.

        I know this is a bargain website but penny pinching by the government, as shown time and time again, isn't viable during a pandemic.

      • Krankite on 06/01/2022 - 08:28
        +2

        Ok then, give me my antigen test I have already paid for with my taxes, better yet give it to my foreign visa holding Uber Eats delivery driver.

      • perfectlydark on 06/01/2022 - 08:55
        +1

        surely $2 of the $1000 I pay in tax every week could go to this crucial public health measure

      • Bronnie on 06/01/2022 - 17:39
        +1

        There appears to be a lot of unthinking people on this site - judging by all the neg votes to commonsense responses.

    • abhideswal on 06/01/2022 - 08:32
      +2

      Scomo would have made them free only if not doing so would affect house prices negatively 🤣🤣

  • voteoften on 06/01/2022 - 02:37
    -7

    Didn’t he backflip? Everyone get free ones. I think limited to 10 in 3 months

    • I Smell Pennies on 06/01/2022 - 02:42
      +15

      not everyone

    • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 04:43
      +5

      This policy covers only 6.6 million people so not Everyone?
      Pension Concession Card
      Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card
      Department of Veterans' Affairs Gold, White or Orange Card
      Health Care Card
      Low Income Health Card

    • PainToad on 06/01/2022 - 06:16
      +10

      Didn’t he backflip? Everyone get free ones. I think limited to 10 in 3 months

      This is what happens when you only read the headlines and not the full article.

      • DemocracyManifest on 06/01/2022 - 07:41
        +2

        He side flipped under pressure, states apparently will be providing them also at PCR joints to start with for free as well

    • Top G on 06/01/2022 - 02:49
      -4

      People are irrational, if it makes them feel better have it available. Better than having mass spreading sessions with people hunting in shops, waiting in test lines, etc.

    • dscott85 on 06/01/2022 - 03:04
      +20

      @tharlow
      You must have missed how the hospitals are at capacity in some states, 4-6 hours to get an ambulance, ambulances banked up to offload patient’s at hospitals, ED’s holding onto patients for up to 60 hours because there are no wards with free beds,

      spillover in tents in the parking lots, understaffing as medical staff catch the virus, all but emergency surgeries cancelled, mass childcare centre closures, people ending up on ventilation and dying, age care homes closing to visitors to protect their residents who can’t see their families, deaths in Australia,

      mass deaths overseas, the failure of logistics as transport people workers fall I’ll, the thousands of people stranded overseas unable to get a flight home, hospital workers denied leave & working double shifts without safe (staff to patient) ratios, people dying because the healthcare system is overwhelmed & they are not receiving treatment, people not being diagnosed for things like cancers as testing levels decrease as people avoid unnecessary exposure,

      etc, etc.

      Covid is far from “benign”, testing allows people to isolate, preventing spread. If you think this is amusing you are a callous individual…

    • XeraltoIV on 06/01/2022 - 03:04
      +5

      wouldn't you save resources by preventing contagious people from passing it on to others and thus stopping people from going to the hospital where much more than a measly $10 is spent on a person?
      wouldn't you like to know if someone who had a deadly virus was having lunch with you and could have potentially spread it to you?
      nothing amusing about having icu beds filled and loss of lives when most are preventable…

    • DogGunn on 06/01/2022 - 05:46
      +1

      Except it does matter. Particularly if you're elderly or immunocompromised. Early detection is required for appropriate treatment. Treatment is required to be done as early as possible else it becomes ineffective.

    • ldq on 06/01/2022 - 08:30

      Don't waste your breath, most folks here are covid cultists, obediently fearful and mindless.
      OZb is a cesspool of mass psychosis.

  • Top G on 06/01/2022 - 02:45
    -6

    Lets go Scomo Lets go

    • smartazz104 on 06/01/2022 - 08:27
      +7

      Yeah I wish he would just go.

  • Dubsys on 06/01/2022 - 02:49
    +10

    Anything for a vote with the election coming up

      • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 04:51
        +4

        Right Winger's in my area says this goes too far… People should look after themselves and not rely on government handouts. Got in an argument with one on Facebook and he suggested to buy tests off Coles next week (no stock). He suggested supply is the issue, not government stockpiling and not giving them out for free. He also discouraged me from telling people NSW leader told us we would get free ones and Scomo coming out with
        "Despite growing pressure to provide free tests more widely – including to vulnerable and low-income groups – the prime minister said subsidised tests would remain limited to people who were close contacts with symptoms.

        “We’re now in a stage of the pandemic where you can’t just make everything free,” Morrison told Channel 7’s Sunrise program on Monday.

        “When someone tells you they want to make something free, someone’s always going to pay for it, and it’s going to be you.”

        • mdavant on 06/01/2022 - 06:18
          +14

          They spent billions giving jobkeeper to hundreds of thousands who didn't need it.

          Now they are broke

      • SBOB on 06/01/2022 - 07:36
        +8

        confident in Scomos budget conscious response

        His what?
        The greatest trick the lnp ever pulled, was convincing people they are still good financial managers.

      • em0r33 on 06/01/2022 - 08:55
        +1

        Budget conscious response? After getting us into the worst deficit? After spending billions on submarines and carparks?

  • WwDesi on 06/01/2022 - 02:50
    +7

    Well wait till all this people who don’t need it will just sell it to make money out of it

    • Top G on 06/01/2022 - 02:56
      +1

      RAT scalpers

      • tharlow on 06/01/2022 - 03:16
        -5

        It all started with a bat, and soon we’ll scalp the rat. And let’s all pretend that this didn’t come from a lab in the first place…

        • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 04:47
          +3

          There is a history of SARS and respiratory diseases in the Asian region already. If it came from a lab, why would Chinese scientists release it in their own country, without informing health officials or vaccinating their population first?

          • souths123 on 06/01/2022 - 07:17
            +5

            @[Deactivated]: first off, they didn't "release it", it got out….those sorts of things do happen by accident. Govts around the world muck around with viruses, so nothing new there. Another thing is, Australian scientists studying the origins found that the virus humans now had was too far removed from the host animal virus…..it had changed too significantly to be natural mutation. They also found the COVID-19 strain was like it was made for us…..they said it was like WE were the host animal now. Normally when something jumps from animals to humans (the host animal to humans) it slowly peters out in us, as we aren't the host animal. That is why that is not happening in this instance. Occasionally things like this happen in nature…..see Spanish Flu, which jumped from a pig, swine flu, to humans as just a type of flu. By the time it was taken to Europe by the Americans and it circulated and mutated around there for a while, all of a sudden it became deadly and very contagious. Luckily, it did peter out, but not before a huge toll on life around the world. It is now the normal flu as far as I know and still going around every year, mutating slightly.
            All we can do now is ride this out to it's conclusion. Will it become MORE or LESS deadly? Only time will tell. I heard another mutation was noted in Africa again, so hang on……….

          • greatlamp on 06/01/2022 - 07:22
            +8

            @[Deactivated]: The theory is that the virus was leaked from the research lab unintentionally.

            The research lab is real, its projects involving the capture and sequencing of unknown viruses on bats is real. WHY such a lab exists is the question, perhaps they just wanted to create vaccines for the hundreds of viruses that only affect wild animals, or perhaps they wanted to create bioweapons. It is known the lab is involved in 'gain of function' research, a benign reason would be to study novel drug delivery mechanisms for biologics - engineer a virus to cure diabetes for example.

            Australia merely suggested an investigation and our key exports were banned immediately. Unfortunately the facts have been mixed up with antivax BS, and reasonable people now completely ignore these very real concerns.

      • 2pro4sho on 06/01/2022 - 08:00

        Ratalpers

    • morse on 06/01/2022 - 04:28
      +8

      And the people that do need it but choose to make some $ instead. If they were freely available to all there wouldn’t be an opportunity for scalping and price gouging.

      ScoMo says he doesn’t want to undercut retailers - surely this would be a product where the government interfering in the market makes perfect sense. Totally bizarre given the other subsidies and market interference that goes on.

      • Pricebeat on 06/01/2022 - 08:20
        +3

        ScoMo says he doesn’t want to undercut retailers

        Meaning he doesn’t want to stop lining up his own pockets indirectly

    • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 06:34
      +1

      There were already several people trying to auction them on ebay last night with a few double pack tests reaching $300, however ebay seems to be actively taking down these ads before auction end times. Same with gumtree.

  • Danneo on 06/01/2022 - 02:59
    +6

    Can’t wait to start seeing this on gumtree and Facebook market lol

    • R3XNebular on 06/01/2022 - 03:09

      I desperately needed a RAT test to return to work and noticed none on FB Marketplace or Gumtree. I assume they are not allowed to sell health products?

      • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 04:41
        +1

        Most stock is being used by people buying it. Probably most people selling it right now have a storefront but give it a few weeks, the emails of the Chinese Biotech companies is on the box.

      • AG_ACT on 06/01/2022 - 07:42

        What location are you?

        I managed to pick up a box of 5, but ACT still requires pcr on return from international travel (so stupid, wasted 11+ hours of my life)

    • souths123 on 06/01/2022 - 07:18

      someone above said people were trying to sell them for profit but the ads are being removed

  • BROKENKEYBOARD on 06/01/2022 - 03:13
    +1

    government thinks they can solve that over a 2 week timeframe

    Are they buying them from a different source than where retail is getting them from? If not it's not really going to make much of a difference.

    • TeddyBear on 06/01/2022 - 03:27
      +2

      Haven't we already done that?

      • tharlow on 06/01/2022 - 03:37
        -7

        At 10000 cases per day, it would take roughly 3000 days (more than 8 years) to wash through the population. At 100000 cases per day, that’s reduced to 10 months. I’d like to see this endemic by the winter, so we can all put this shit behind us

        • scud70 on 06/01/2022 - 05:53
          +3

          Yeh ok.. Let's just ignore our health system and anyone on the vulnerable side of things.

          It'll spread that's a given… It just needs to happen at a pace that isn't going to cripple the health system

        • greatlamp on 06/01/2022 - 07:36
          +1

          Yeah, because you can guarantee it won't mutate after it infects 25 million people?

          COVID killed 500 children in the USA, it isn't harmless.

    • XeraltoIV on 06/01/2022 - 05:40
      +6

      The common cold doesn't fill this many ICU beds and ward beds

  • cyrax83 on 06/01/2022 - 03:23
    +5

    Watch them all be flipped like milk formula

  • Falbium on 06/01/2022 - 03:41
    +7

    Nice that pensioners can supplement their income selling 10 RATs each quarter, god knows they need the money

    Don't try this in WA, $20,000 fine for using a rapid antigen test:
    https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2021-09/Prohibition-on-th…

    These things cost $2 each at 7/11s in Thailand, I can only assume they are making a profit there. Can only imagine how much profit is being made over here.

  • Chocobros on 06/01/2022 - 04:20
    +6

    Targeted

  • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 04:36
    -5

    I was gonna wait 2 weeks to post this as a deal, L plater beat me to it usually mine get unpublished as "not enough details"
    Gratz mate on your +300 upvotes
    Note to self: Press release of what government plans to do in weeks or months can be posted as a deal

  • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 04:52
    -1

    How things change in 2 days:

    Despite growing pressure to provide free tests more widely – including to vulnerable and low-income groups – the prime minister said subsidised tests would remain limited to people who were close contacts with symptoms.

    “We’re now in a stage of the pandemic where you can’t just make everything free,” Morrison told Channel 7’s Sunrise program on Monday.

    “When someone tells you they want to make something free, someone’s always going to pay for it, and it’s going to be you.”

  • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 06:02
    +27

    Slomo is the worst prime minister in Australias history, could turnbone have done any better.

    • mdavant on 06/01/2022 - 06:21
      -8

      Alboqueasy would have purchase 6 trillion rat tests whilst we had 100 cases per day because, well just because

      He has a retrospectoscope which runs on a Mr fusion.

      • souths123 on 06/01/2022 - 07:19
        +3

        that is utter nonsense

        • mdavant on 06/01/2022 - 12:16

          Can you find a press release where he was championing to purchase a hundred million rat tests from 4-6 months ago?

          It is easy to look infallible from opposition.

          • souths123 on 06/01/2022 - 13:03

            @mdavant: your reply might be to the wrong person

            • mdavant on 06/01/2022 - 18:43

              @souths123: So you think alboqueasy is talking rubbish again I see.

              7 dependent lefties disagree.

              And I then ask them to provide a link.

              • souths123 on 06/01/2022 - 19:23

                @mdavant: again, you are replying to the wrong person??

                • mdavant on 06/01/2022 - 20:02

                  @souths123: Nope. I was replying to you

                  • souths123 on 06/01/2022 - 20:09
                    +1

                    @mdavant: then you obviously need help, as your replies are nonsensical

                    • mdavant on 07/01/2022 - 10:30
                      -2

                      @souths123: Denial is no justification for failing to apply logic or failure to respond to a very sensible question I asked you.

                      • souths123 on 07/01/2022 - 10:35
                        +1

                        @mdavant: you have got to be kidding me? I never posed anything in my comments that have ANYTHING to do with your questions. Crank. Go away. Bye, Bye.

                        • mdavant on 07/01/2022 - 10:53

                          @souths123: "that is utter nonsense"

                          Welcome to the wonderful world of being able to read

                          • souths123 on 07/01/2022 - 10:59

                            @mdavant: yes, that was my comment and I stand by it, and somehow you have strung that out that into something much more than it was. Again, you have rocks in your head, mate. Go get help. All future comments you make will be ignored.

                            • mdavant on 07/01/2022 - 13:34

                              @souths123: Provide some evidence to support your claim.

                              Otherwise all you are doing is politicking and arguing like a 12 year old.

    • CJ31 on 06/01/2022 - 06:34
      +3

      This is a multilevel failure. The states talked up Covid zero, and therefore rejected RAT tests because they were not the gold standard of accuracy that PCR is. In their minds using RATs would be an opportunity to get attacked politically because they undercut their own hyped standards. The states' fight against the use RAT tests went on for far too long until they got smashed and PCR became a joke. 2 years the states had to get ready for this, to look around the world and see how to deal with high numbers. They all got caught with their pants down, determined to hold to PCR at all cost. 2 years and they couldn't work out all PCR wouldn't work.

      The feds weren't interested if the states wouldn't use them. Now ScoMo is doubling down on not buying more then he needs. ScoMo is doing what he does best, as little as possible

      • greatlamp on 06/01/2022 - 07:40
        +4

        Don't forget NSW state gov intentionally frustrated efforts to control the virus via lockdowns until COVID zero became impossible.

        • Krankite on 06/01/2022 - 08:33
          +3

          They also were allowed by the federal government to open up international travel resulting in Omicron being present in the community before modelling and planning could be adjusted.

  • TEER3X on 06/01/2022 - 06:41
    +1

    This is the most spreadable disease in history, it's unstoppable.

    I think at this point all we can do is wear masks and go about our daily lives as normal.

    It's pretty stupid you have to wait hours and hours to get tested, but it's not a problem on the supply side.

    • bobalot on 06/01/2022 - 07:31
      +3

      It's a problem of uttely inept government which failed to put into place a system which multiple other national governments have put in place despite having 2 years to do so.

  • iforgotmysocks on 06/01/2022 - 06:42
    +4

    Unobtainable deal

  • JohnnyP on 06/01/2022 - 07:01
    -6

    sick and tired of all these benefits only for low income earners. 2 people on 30K is likely the equivalent of one person on 120K with the tax free thresholds/benefits etc etc yet the one person on 120K gets bugger all

    • atriplec on 06/01/2022 - 07:28
      +19

      I think you should refocus your anger away from low income earners and more towards the parasitic donors Scomo cowtowed to like Gerry that wanted to sell the RATs, along with his chemist warehouse compatriot… At 30k I'm sure they paid some tax unlike 1/3 of Australian corporations in 19/20 tax period.

    • bobalot on 06/01/2022 - 07:32

      I think your anger is directed at the wrong place, mate.

      This virus hits rich and poor alike.

      • dec1an on 06/01/2022 - 07:42
        +6

        you're deluded if you think they're both suffering to the same extent though. Poorer = worse health outcomes. It's a basic public health fact repeated over and over again, especially in this pandemic.

    • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2022 - 09:17
      -1

      It gets worse, 4 people on job seeker is the equivalent of one person on 120k and 8 people on youth allowance is the equivalent of one person on 120k and 120k people on $1 a day in Africa is equivalent of one person on 120k.

    • arcticmonkey on 06/01/2022 - 13:40
      +1

      The people on $30k a year are paying more tax than many big businesses. The tax write offs we are giving them goes into the billions.

      Tiny small amounts for people on $30k a year is miniscule in comparison.

      Stop listening to Murdoch. Your anger is misdirected.

  • fatming on 06/01/2022 - 07:12
    +2

    Healthcare is not “free”….prescriptions have gone up in price this year and other things you probably haven’t noticed….subtle ways the government with recoup these “free” access. Rather pay for them as needed than let those eligible hoard these and then ending up in waste bins as they were “free” to get but they didn’t even need them in the first place! Setting a locked subsidised price for all Australians might be a better idea, even if it were $5 each, so to dismiss those that are getting them unnecessarily is a better option!! Future healthcare crisis will hit our children and grandchildren etc.

  • xfiledavid on 06/01/2022 - 07:18
    +2

    scomo will pick some up on his next holiday.. which is overdue now…

  • ozbar on 06/01/2022 - 07:35

    Good Scomo looks after the pensioners too. Vote Liberal! A caring PM!

    • souths123 on 06/01/2022 - 09:39

      sarcasm, I hope?

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