Grattan on Friday: Labor will need yet another budget backtrack to resurrect some of its health rebate cut

The ins and outs of some of the seemingly endless fights over the Albanese government’s budget measures are often arcane or difficult for many people to easily understand.

That’s the case, for example, with the legislation to crack down on trusts, introduced on Wednesday, which has been surrounded by a lot of heat.

But the tug of war over the government’s plan to remove, from April next year, the age discrimination that favours older people taking out private health insurance is a very simple issue for voters to get their heads around, wherever they stand on the merits of the measure.

It’s now a central battle for the government and it will be hard for it to rescue the measure without sacrificing big dollars – just when Treasurer Jim Chalmers needs to preserve the budget’s savings.

In terms of personalities, there’s a lot to watch too, with new Greens leader David Shoebridge and Health Minister Mark Butler as main players.

Both have something to prove in how this ends.

It’s Shoebridge’s first big legislative test in his new role, and he flagged earlier the Greens would be more assertive under his leadership.

For Butler, seen as one of the frontrunners to eventually succeed Anthony Albanese, it will be another benchmark of his ability to land a deal – providing clues on how well he will handle the complexities ahead in his job of reforming the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Under present arrangements, people 65 and over who have private health insurance receive a bigger rebate than those who are younger.

The amount is larger if they are 70 or older.

By removing the “top ups”, the government would save $3 billion over four years.

It has said this would be put into aged care, which is much in need of money.

Its justification for the measure is equity – that it is unfair that people should be treated differently on the basis of age.

On Wednesday the opposition, Greens and other crossbenchers joined in the Senate to knock the legislation off the government’s agenda.