Keeping the snowball rolling
Yesterday was another big day for media coverage of the pressing need for aged care reform, and the promise of a budget surplus that stands in its way.
Above: Aged Care Association Australia CEO, Rod Young, watches from the audience at the National Press Club aged care forum yesterday. Mr Young said earlier in the day he was alarmed by reports that $2 billion would be cut from the aged care budget.
By Stephen Easton
The campaign to get aged care reform included in the upcoming Federal Budget was thrust into the mainstream media spotlight yesterday at the National Press Club in Canberra.
The aged care forum and press conference added to a bumper Easter weekend for the snowballing movement, which urges the government to take the first steps in the aged care reform journey mapped out by the Productivity Commission (PC) last year, when the budget comes down on 8 May.
Catholic Health Australia CEO, Martin Laverty, COTA Australia CEO, Ian Yates and Australian Nursing Federation national secretary, Lee Thomas gave presentations on behalf of the National Aged Care Alliance and the Australians deserve to age well campaign, before answering questions from many of Australia’s prominent journalists.
A number of stories have appeared in today’s newspapers pitting the sector’s dire need for improvement against the promise to deliver a national surplus.
The reform proposals may have also become an election issue, with Mr Laverty telling journalists that action on aged care would be “a definite vote-winner” for the Labor Party, while failing to act would have the opposite effect.
But aged care’s day in the sun had already begun with the Minister for Ageing, Mark Butler, receiving a very warm reception in his first ever appearance on the highly influential 2GB Breakfast radio show, hosted by Alan Jones.
The sector also awoke to an article in the Australian Financial Review regarding the government’s plans to reign in aged care spending, which has increased since the introduction of the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) in 2008.
According to the story’s unnamed aged care industry sources, health bureaucrats confirmed that $2 billion would be cut from ACFI outlays, either through a five per cent cut to subsidies or the reclassification of some residents as needing lower level care.
Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) CEO, Rod Young, expressed astonishment that the government would consider slashing $2 billion from aged care funding.
“A reduction of this size would mean an almost 25 per cent loss in income and lead to near collapse of the industry,” Mr Young said.
“At the very time Prime Minister Gillard and Minister Butler have been saying aged care needs support and reform, it is very alarming to find claims that a quarter of the industry’s already scarce funding is likely to be lost in an attempt to balance the government’s books.
“The budget surplus should not be at the expense of Australia’s most vulnerable and dependent elderly citizens.”
The new CEO of Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA), Professor John Kelly, said his organisation had already expressed concern about any move to reduce the funding.
“…better matching care needs and funding was one of the key reasons why the government introduced ACFI in the first place as well as a key reason why the industry has supported the ACFI system,” Professor Kelly said.
“Of course, ACSA does not support inappropriate claiming under ACFI and will continue to collaborate with the Department to provide education or other support for providers as needed.”
The ACSA chief added that “independent and transparent processes for determining prices” was one of the most important elements of the PC’s reform package, and that ACSA had sought a commitment from Minister Butler that ACFI subsidies would not be reduced before a detailed ‘cost of care study’ had been undertaken.
Above: Australian Financial Review journalist, Fleur Anderson, asks a question at the National Press Club Yesterday.
The Financial Review article’s author, Fleur Anderson, put the claims in her article to COTA Australia CEO, Ian Yates, after his speech at the National Press Club, and asked if cutting $2 billion from aged care funding was “a good thing to do”.
“I see no linkage between the review of ACFI that’s going on at the moment, and [the aged care reform package being considered],” Mr Yates replied.
He added that COTA Australia had warned the government against any pre-emptive measures resulting from the ACFI review that would clash with “the reforms about to be implemented”.
But “it would be incorrect to draw linkages between them,” he said.
