Medicare clearing house will create distortions
Australia’s largest private sector superannuation clearing house, SuperChoice, has warned the Federal Government that the planned introduction of the Medicare Approved Clearing House will create an uneven playing field, impose unfair competition and adversely affect existing players.
In a submission to the Treasury, SuperChoice said the Approved Clearing House would directly impact its business because it counts around 40,000 smaller employers amongst its end clients, remitting superannuation contributions on behalf of 150,000 Australians.
“These employers will now become eligible for an alternative free service, which is the reason that we believe the initiative as currently proposed is unfair to private sector clearing house providers,” the submission said.
The SuperChoice submission, which is similar in flavour to that produced by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), argued that there is a need to level the playing field by allowing private sector clearing houses to become Approved Clearing Houses alongside Medicare.
The company’s submission said SuperChoice had been surprised by the failure of the Government’s proposed legislation to extend Approved Clearing House status to providers other than Medicare.
“The failure to make stated provision for a private sector Approved Clearing House is, in our view, a critical omission,” it said.
“Perhaps just as importantly, the legislation in its current form constrains both the current and any future government of either persuasion to nominate or move to a private sector Approved Clearing House model now or in the future,” the SuperChoice submission said.
The submission also called for private sector clearing houses to be placed on the same footing as Medicare with respect to meeting superannuation guarantee deadlines.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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