Aged Care Review Report
The review of the Living Longer Living Better Reforms introduced in 2014 has now been completed with a comprehensive report, including 38 recommendations recently being tabled in Parliament.
The review report which spans the industry, including the financial arrangements and sends a clear message that consumers will need to pay more.
In relation to home care the recommendations include:
- Making the basic daily fee compulsory and proportionate to the value of a home care package
- Standardising fees and charging people based on a means assessment for Commonwealth Home Support Programme Services, ensuring that operators charge these fees.
For residential aged care, the recommendations have a similar flavour – consumers should pay more. Here the recommendations include:
- Removing the current cap of $162,815 applied to the former home for means testing - assessing the full value unless a protected person is living there.
- Removing the annual and lifetime caps on Income Tested Care Fees and Means Tested Care Fees.
- Removing the current Basic Daily Fee cap of $49.42 per day for market price payers, with providers needing approval to charge more than $100 per day.
- Increasing the accommodation market price cap from $550,000 to $750,000 before requiring approval from the Aged Care Pricing Commissioner.
While Ken Wyatt has said that the government won’t support uncapping income tested and means tested care fees or the value of the former home consumers shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet – uncapping the Basic Daily Fee and increasing the market price cap haven’t been ruled out.
It could be argued that removing the caps would have been fairer, given that to reach the home care cap requires income of at least $46,500p.a and for the Means Tested Care Fee financial assets of $1.26M. But very few people would exceed the cap – adjusting the Daily Care Fee and accommodation cap will ensure more people pay more for care and that’s what this is about.
Our new “Understanding the cost of Aged Care” booklet and "Ready Reckoner" is out now. Email admin@goldenageadvisory.com.au to order your copies.
Steve Jenkosky trading as Golden Age Advisory is an Authorised Representative of Synchron AFS License No. 243313.
Unless specifically indicated, the information contained in this BLOG post is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek personal advice from a financial adviser.