The Government says it will cut aged care funding by $1.2B over the next 4 years but a new investigation says this is wrong – the real size of the aged care cuts is closer to $2.5B.
Peak aged care providers, consumer groups and nursing representatives have taken their cause to Canberra. They are demanding the Government’s modelling be made available. The Government is declining to hand it over.
Addressing an Aged Forum at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) President Paul Sadler said the $1.2 billion cuts to the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) over the next four years were “unacceptable in their current form” and “must be halted”.
He was joined by Council on the Ageing Australia (COTA) chief executive Ian Yates and Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary Lee Thomas in calling for the measures to be reviewed and the modelling behind them be made public.
Report puts cuts at $2.5 billion
An independent report commissioned by UnitingCare Australia, ACSA and Catholic Health Australia surveyed 501 aged care facilities representing 39,000 residents. It found the changes would decrease the annual funding per resident by $6,655 a year or 11 per cent.
An aged care home with 100 residents will lose $665,500 income a year. It still has 100 residents to care for however.
The report estimates the cost of the cuts to be nearly $840 million more than the Government’s estimates.
Prior to polling day, the National Aged Care Alliance and ACSA had both pressed hard for the Government to review the cuts to no avail. Labor had also stopped short of promising to reverse the cuts, only supporting a review.
Old, Frail and Invisible
ACSA instead took its own ‘Old, Frail and Invisible’ campaign straight to the cross-benchers, with the Greens and Independent Senators Nick Xenophon, Andrew Wilkie and Jackie Lambie all voicing their opposition to the cuts.
“It’s certainly been part of the reality of the outcome of the election that those cross-benchers have engaged with the concerns of their communities,” Mr Sadler said at the Forum, “and in effect all we’re doing is asking all political parties to do the same.”
As mentioned in his speech, last week former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry said Australia’s political system had proved “incapable” of dealing with the recommendations from his first Intergenerational Report, seeing the ageing of the population as a distant issue.
A roadmap for the future?
Neither party committed to the reforms outlined in the Aged Care Roadmap released by the Aged Care Sector Committee in April in the lead-up to the election either.
As someone working on the frontline of aged care, I can personally say these cuts will drastically undermine our ability to look after the sick and vulnerable in our society, especially those receiving treatment for severe pain and chronic diseases.
What are we, the workers in care facilities, to say to residents?
With the election now decided, the time has come for the major political parties to work with the sector to make sure the aged care system works, that it can provide for residents, staff and providers into the future.
