Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / David Cunliffe: Aged Care Ministerial Advisory Group Chair on the report calling for an overview of the system

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David Cunliffe: Aged Care Ministerial Advisory Group Chair on the report calling for an overview of the system · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: To call for wealthier key Wes to fund more of
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: our essential aged care services. This has come from the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: minister or Advisory Groups reportant to aged care. It reckons
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: cost will double over the next twenty years. They want
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: structural reform. David Canliffe, Aged Care Ministerial Advisory Group Chair
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: joins me this morning. David, good morning, good morning. You're
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so you want the rich to pay more for the system.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: How's this system funded at the moment.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: The moment, the system is part funded by personal contributions
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: as part funded by the Taxpayer'll that'll continue? We need
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: both to be putting more money in in order to
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: make sure the system's there when the current generation, ages
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and future generations come through. If we make the system
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: smarter and better, we can also save money compared to
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: what it would be if we just kept funding the
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: current system, about eight hundred and thirty five million dollars
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: a year cheaper to the taxpayer by twenty thirty seven
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: thirty eight. That's a it's a dividend worth getting.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: When you say the system, what exactly are we talking about?
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Are we talking about what hospitals or some kind of
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: facility where old people go?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: What is it yeah, look, great question. Firstly, it's your
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: home care. So if granny is being looked after a
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: home and someone's coming in for a few hours a
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: week to help out, that's what we call the home
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: care part of the system. When people get more frail,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: they move on to residential care or quote resk care
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: that's being in a home of some kind. And then
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: if people are really sick, of course they go into hospital. Now,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: most hospitals are publicly funded and pretty much free to
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: the person going in, and there are a lot of
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: old people in hospital. It's really expensive on the taxpayer
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: who possibly shouldn't be there, who should either be cared
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: for at home or could be in residential care.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: And why aren't they at home or in residential care
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: because they can't afford it?
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: No, because the services aren't there to look after them.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: And that's why we need to build a better, more
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: integrated service with higher levels of care available at home.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Not only is that better for them, because most people
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: would like to be at home, close to their families,
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  Speaker 2: close their memories, where they've got their stuff, but it's
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: also a lot cheaper to look after people in their
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: homes than it is to put them in hospital. So
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: it's nearly two thousand dollars a night in a hospital.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: So the government's not funding enough home care and residential
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: care to get these older people out of hospital.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: At the moment that's correct, that problem is getting worse.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: What's the shortfall? What's the how much it would that
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: cost us?
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Well, if we run the clock forward about ten years
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: and the moment we're paying two and a half billion,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: we would be paying nearly five billion dollars by twenty
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: thirty seven thirty eight if we just pump money into
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the current system without fixing it, and it's just to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: build beds in resis care and to keep the current
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: system going. If we redesign it, if we join it
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: together better, if we remove the bottlenecks and barriers, if
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: we look after people better in their homes, we can
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: save eight hundred and thirty five million dollars a year
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: and bring that tab down to three point seven billion,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: not five.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Where Where does the asking wealthier people think come from?
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: What does that mean that their co payment for home
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: care or co payment for residential care would go up
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: if you've got more assets or something.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, partly, but it's a packaged deal. What we're recommending
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: is the principle that your basic health care is free
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: should be true and protected all the way across the system. Now,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: at the moment it's free in hospital, it's not free
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: in res care, and it is free at home, but
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: there's not much of it. So we want to joined
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: up system where medical care is protected and free right
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: across the system. But for those who can afford to
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: contribute to their personal care, their home services, that they
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: should make a small contribution to that. And of course
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: at the moment you pay for your residential care if
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: you go and if your assets are over a certain threshold,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: we would change that threshold and make it smoother David Cumnor,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: but also bring in a cap so you couldn't pay
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: for more than five.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Years aged km and a serial advisory group share for.
• 4:19
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• 4:21
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• 4:23
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• 4:26
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