In his speech in response to the budget this week, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese promised a plan to repair the “aged care crisis”.
Labour’s aged care package includes 24/7 registered nurses in all residential care settings, higher pay for aged care staff, higher care, higher food for residents and greater accountability for care providers.
The direct cost of Labor’s commitments is estimated at A$2.5 billion over 4 years, not including higher pay for staff.
This cost will probably be approx 4 billion Australian dollars per yrdepending on the Decision of the Fair Work Commission later this yr. The Commission is considering the case of trade unions for elderly care staff for a 25% pay rise.
But while Labor’s announcements are beneficial initiatives, they don’t reflect the excellent plan we’d like for reform.
What’s the issue?
Community took over responsibility for caring for the elderly from the states 25 years ago.
It then centralized, privatized, commoditized, and marketized it to extend efficiency and manage expenses, but on the expense of quality and accountability.
The results are visible to everyone. Increasingly, larger “big box” institutions are scuffling with loneliness, poor quality of care and isolation from friends, family and community.
Those who select to not enter aged care facilities face year-long waiting lists for home and community care.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety comprehensively documented the issues in the present system.
Labour’s aged care announcements
Labour’s initiatives within the budget response are best seen as an advance payment focused on the aged care home issues identified by the Commission.
Broader structural policy orientations still must be addressed. This includes:
- balance between residential and residential care as Australians increasingly select the latter
- market management and governance because an excessive amount of emphasis is placed on costs and profits for suppliers and too little on quality and outcomes for residents
- balance between private and non-private funding, as higher care will cost more.
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However, Labour’s residential care initiatives are cleverly targeted.
The staff is approx 70% of the price of caring for the elderly in a nursing home. One method to reduce costs and improve profits is to employ low-paid, unskilled staff on casual and versatile part-time contracts.
Not surprisingly, this has made aged care unattractive to staff. Quality has deteriorated and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to recruit staff.
Another method to reduce costs is to scale back the living expenses of residents of nursing homes for the elderly. On average, a 3rd of homes still spend lower than $10 on food every resident per day.
There is little doubt that aged care will struggle and not using a better-paid and more expert workforce, including a greater role for nurses.
In 2015, it was estimated that every aged care resident received roughly 168 minutes of care per day.
Labor is promising Fair Work pay rises for employees, 215 minutes of take care of every resident and 24/7 nursing support.
What is the budget for elder care?
The government didn’t promise anything latest on aged care in its 2022 budget, aside from a continued response to the recent recommendations of the royal commission.
However, there’s a one-off bonus of A$800 and extra funding for training and placement of pharmacists in aged care settings.
While COTA (Council on Older People), which represents older Australians, mostly supported the federal government’s budget and her response to the royal commission, the Australian Aged Care Collaborative, representing major providers, was rather more criticalparticularly, the federal government’s lack of commitment to increasing the wages of aged care staff.
In contrast, each consumer AND supplier organizations support Labour’s budget initiatives on aged care.
Broadly speaking, the aged care sector does criticized the federal government’s response to the aged care crisis as anemic: too little, too slow and too late (particularly in relation to Covid-19).
The Minister for Aged Care, Richard Colbeck, has been called out repeatedly throughout the pandemic be fired.
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None of those actions have been helped by the lack of the royal commission to supply a coherent, unified and consistent plan.
Not surprisingly, the federal government has chosen the gradual, piecemeal path of least resistance among the many commission’s recommendations to strengthen fairly than reform the present system.
The key thesis of the opposition leader’s speech on the elderly care budget was: “we will introduce the principle of universal, affordable and high-quality care services for children and the elderly.”
Aged care reform stays unfinished business for Labor. It began this week, but there’s more to come back.
