The Aged Care Taskforce Report released at 10pm last night recommends to the government that the government should pay for the care component of home and residential care, and the non-care accommodation services should be paid by the client.
The exception is people on full-aged pensions. This accounts for approximately 45% of aged care home residents.
There are no dollar numbers in the report, but the educated guess is between $25,000 and $50,000 a year will need to be paid to be a resident in an aged care home, and in home care, the client will be paying for non-care elements like washing, housekeeping and shopping trips. Think $5,000 for a Level 1 package and $10,000 for a Level 3 or higher package.
The second major change is that the report recommends that the government releases operators so that they can create competitive service options and fee structures to attract clients.
The paradigm shift is most of us are going to need cash to pay for services, and we will have more options than we have now.
This is the important point for village operators, because when New Zealand introduced these paradigms shifts, people said, if I am going to pay I am going to want something special and I don’t see that in aged care homes.
NZ retirement villages offered them something special and customers jumped in.
The report focuses on people using their home care packages for care; with domestic services receiving less funding will mean there will be more money in the package for that care delivery, including allied health.
This will translate into village residents having larger funds available to support higher acuity in the village home, which will percolate through to retirement villages being positioned as a care solution rather than independent living.
Added to this is the news that the Department of Health is looking hard at a Level 5 home care package being released in July 2025.
With people staying in the village home with far higher levels of care needs brings more responsibility for the village operator, and more staff.
Is this what village operators want? Will they have a choice, if their residents are taking control of their own journey backed by more government provided care cash?