Amy Brown hit with $4000 tax bill after she used superannuation for breast removal surgery

Amy Brown had the Angelina Jolie breast cancer gene. But she was shocked when she had to pay $4000 to use her retirement savings for surgery.

When Amy Brown discovered she carried the Angelina Jolie breast cancer gene she had to raid her superannuation to pay for the $15,000 in out of pocket costs for preventive breast removal surgery.

The 34-year-old researcher was shocked to discover she also had to pay $4000 in tax for using her retirement savings — a cost that saw her super balance reduced by $19,000.

“I shouldn’t be paying tax on money that I’m using to have a procedure that I’m funding myself, that’s going to save the government money, why am I being punished for that?” she asked.

“It is the same year Covid happens and all these people are just getting out 10 grand from their super with no tax, and then they get another ten grand six months later when I am doing this so that I don’t get breast cancer,” she said.

Amy Brown, 34, from Melbourne, had $15,000 in out of pocket expenses for surgery last year. Picture: Mark Stewart

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She’s one of more than 77,000 patients who drew down in excess of $1.2 billion in superannuation in the last three years to fund medical costs not covered by their insurer or Medicare.

The number of poeple resorting to this method of paying for medical care soared by 15 per cent between 2018-19 and 2019-2020.

Money-hungry surgeons and inadequate insurance rebates are seeing patients stripped of their retirement nest eggs, forced to set up GoFundMe accounts and beg relatives for funding to cover medical bills.

Despite being a health fund member for more than 40 years, pensioner Jill Kirkpatrick who has pancreatic and lung cancer is paying off $1500 in out-of-pocket fees for radiotherapy, $600 for genetic testing and $900 for scans in monthly instalments. She also had to pay a $1500 gap fee to the surgeon who removed her lung cancer.

“I just think it’s unfair that you’re paying for insurance all your life and then all of a sudden when you need it, you’re out of pocket again,” she said.

Originally published as Amy Brown hit with $4000 tax bill after she used superannuation for breast removal surgery