Aged Care Reform - It's Time - 5th August

Aged and Community Services Australia, the largest not for profit provider peak body in Australia, looks forward to action on aged care reform.

Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) welcomes Monday’s release of the Productivity Commission Report “Caring for Older Australians”.

ACSA was encouraged by the draft PC Report, which understood that change is urgently needed to ensure that one of the best aged care systems in the world is sustainable and continues to deliver a quality service that will be ready for  when you or a loved one need those services.

“We have unprecedented agreement on the need for reform – consumers, providers, unions, all political parties  - this is the time to work together to deliver lasting change to the aged care system,”  Patrick McClure ACSA CEO said.

“This is a package of reforms, that when implemented provide a flexible funding model to ensure the delivery of quality care, when and where people need it.

“Aged care providers are absolutely committed to quality care – enabling consumer choice of and good access to services in the city and in the country.”

This relies on Flexibility of funding models which:

support the growth of community care because currently about 1 million older people use community care services - by 2020 this figure will grow to over 1.4 million - an increase of about 30%;
encourage investment in aged care beds  because according to the Government’s own figures we need to build about 82,000 new beds by 2020, costing conservatively $200,000 each; and
enable people who can afford to contribute to the cost of their care and accommodation to do so.  A safety net must be in place for people who cannot afford to pay.