Australia’s health reform body has once again thrown down the gauntlet to the Rudd Government, urging it to consider bonds and alternative consumer contributions for high care in its final report.

The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission has reiterated its vision for an aged care system characterised by greater flexibility and consumer choice that would be offset by those who can afford to pay.

The government has previously ruled out the possibility of taking bonds from normal high care residents.

And yesterday Kevin Rudd said he would not make any decisions based on the report for another six months, leaving time for “mature national debate”.

But the peak body representing Australia’s 550 Catholic affiliated aged care facilities says the government should respond immediately to the recommendations for aged care.

“There is no need for the government to wait another six months; there is no need to continue the debate into 2010,” said the CEO of Catholic Health Australia, Martin Laverty.

Mr Laverty said there was unprecedented support for reform in aged care from the industry and consumers and it was important to start implementing the changes.

“We are willing to partner with the government on making those recommendations workable,” he said.

“At the moment the recommendations are just a few sentences without all the detail so we need to do a lot of work to implement them.

“What else does the government need to act? It has unity from the sector and consumers, it has the recommendations and now it has our offer of assistance is on the table.”

However other industry peak bodies have welcomed the chance to debate the proposed changes.

Both Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) and Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) said recommendations such as the proposed removal of the approvals round could have major ramifications.

“The government had a clear consultation plan for the hospital sector but it was not so clear about aged care so we are pushing now to make sure there is a clear consultation process,” said ACSA’s Acting CEO, Pat Sparrow.

“There is broad support for the reform directions outlined in the report and there is consensus around where the report needs to go but there is not enough detail underneath it to implement it yet.”

The final report made it clear that any changes in aged care would not happen overnight.

In one of the few additions to the interim aged care recommendations, the final report called for a five-year transition period to give aged care providers the opportunity to convert existing low care residential places to community care places.

Click here to see the NHHRC report.