The Federation the Greek Elderly Citizen Clubs of Melbourne & Victoria was established in1984. Its aim was and remains the dynamic representation of the Greek Australian Senior Citizens Clubs and the Australian Greek elderly in general.
Today the Federation represents 110 different Greek Associations with a membership of over 22.000. It is undoubtedly one of the biggest organisations within Melbourne’s large Greek Australian community, that over the past 35 years the federation has broadened its scope of programs to cater to the needs of the Greek Australian elderly and in co-operation with PRONIA, the Federation is able to offer a much broader range of services.
The president of the Federation, John Kostoulias, sent an open letter to Australian Prime Minister Scot Morrison, urging him to take the needs of the elderly and the difficulty accessing services and treatment into consideration.
“On behalf of the Federation of Greek Elderly Citizen Clubs of Melbourne & Victoria with 22,000 members, and for all the pensioners of Australia, we would like to thank you and commend your government for the substantial increase to the pensions payments as of September 2021.
We would, however, like to point out some dilemmas and requests that the pensioners would like the government to address and consider.
Unfortunately, the cost of living in general, food, utilities, insurance, rates etc. is rapidly increasing and continues to make it very difficult for pensioners. We would kindly request that you look into matter and consider instructing the appropriate ministers to investigate and consider making the appropriate changes or allowances.
Another important pending matter that we wish to have addressed is the issue with the cost of pharmaceuticals. We strongly believe all necessary medication should be free of charge. The majority of pharmaceuticals are not fully subsidised anymore as it was for many years.
Dilemma posed with medication, the majority of the prescribed medication by doctors are not those dispersed by the pharmacies, resulting in generic brands being only subsidised by the government. “A personal example, when I went on Safety Net to get my subsidised prescription, I had to get the brand the pharmacy was offering and not what my doctor has prescribed.”
We hope that you will consider the needs of our pensioners acknowledging that the senior citizens of Australia have contributed to all aspects of society, we are still contributing and aspire to live our lives with whatever dignity we have left.
I urge you and the relevant ministers once again, to look into this matter carefully and make the necessary adjustments to reflect the current cost of living.
I repeat, the majority of our medication s should be fully subsidised; the dental system should be subsidised through Medicare, and the medication for incontinence to be included and covered as well,” Mr Kosroulias said.
