The Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler has been taken to task on the Government's aged care reforms in a lively interview on ABC Radio in Adelaide yesterday.
Host David Bevan grilled the Minister on the Government's decision to unlock "this big bucket of money" to build new aged care homes, accusing the Government of "setting a precedent" by asking middle class Australians to contribute to the cost of their care, an argument that the Minister rejected.
"People have been, for a very long time, been asked to contribute to the cost of their aged care," said Butler. "They did decades ago. They did when Peter Dutton and I agreed aged care reforms 12 or 13 years ago, people were being asked to contribute to the cost of their care. So there's certainly a change to the nature of the system.
"But I'll make this point, just to give you a sense of the numbers. Currently, taxpayers fund about 95% of the cost of home care. 95%. Once these changes are in place, taxpayers will still fund 89% of the costs of home care. So still, the vast bulk of the system is funded from the Budget, so from existing taxpayers who are working right now."
Bevan also honed in on the 200 older South Australians are stuck in hospital waiting for aged care beds, noting it will take "two, three, four, five years" for new beds to become available which prompted Butler to acknowledge the "linkages" between hospital and aged care are a "challenge".
"No one's been building aged care facilities now for some years. It just hasn't been what they describe as 'investable'," the Minister for Health and Aged Care said.
"The banks have said we're not willing to lend money to you on these policy settings."
The Minister said providers he has spoken to tell him the reforms announced last week, if implemented, will make it much easier for them to get development projects over the line.
"One operator announced - literally the day of our announcement - that they had homes ready to go, with development approvals from their local councils. They're going to build 1,600 beds, just off the back of our announcement, across the country. A number of other providers have been telling me the same."
But will that be the case? See this story.
