The Fed Govt has declared it will not include the full value of the owner’s home in the means test for residential aged care or remove the annual and lifetime caps on means-tested fees, despite both measures being recommended by the Legislated Review of Aged Care 2017 report.
Instead it will invest $20M in the My Aged Care platform to ‘improve public access, especially for rural, regional and remote clients’ and make another 6,000 home care packages available.
In total, the Govt has committed $18.6B for aged care in 2017-18, including $2M to fund an aged care workforce strategy that will be produced by a taskforce chaired by Professor John Pollaers.
The aged care peaks have welcomed the report’s release, but expressed disappointment that the changes have been ruled out.
Aged Care Guild Chief Executive Cameron O’Reilly said: “Just as the Government has legislation before the parliament aimed at securing a long-term funding deal for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) through a higher Medicare levy, it has to embrace the recommendations of its independent reviewer about how we fund the massive growth in aged care needs in a rapidly ageing society.”
With the Productivity Commission predicting we will need almost one million aged care staff by 2050, it’s a question the Govt will have to answer soon.
You can find out more about the Review here.
