Labor's aged care target is doomed without a major increase in investment, a former advisor to the Aged Care Royal Commission has warned, leaving potentially hundreds of thousands of older people without the basic care they need.
Wait times for a "medium priority" recipient of a home care package is 9-12 months from assessment, including at the highest "Level 4" category of care. The Government has set a target to get wait times down to 3 months by 1 July 2027.
But expert evidence given at a Greens-led Senate inquiry into aged care has said that there is "no possibility" of reaching that target based on current government policy. (Submission from Prof Kathy Eager, pg4 question 5)
On the same day that Labor plans to hit their home care target in 2027, Labor is due to shut down the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP), which currently supports over 800,000 older people with their everyday needs.
Responses received yesterday from the Department of Health and Ageing to Greens' questions at the inquiry suggested the government has not modelled the impact of the closure of the Commonwealth Home Support Program, which currently supports over 800,000 people. Rather than answer yes or no to a factual question on whether modelling existed, the Department refused to answer. [see Response to Questions on notice, Q7] Ending the Commonwealth Home Support Program would place enormous pressure on Support at Home and is a key reason why wait time targets will be out of reach.
The Greens have called on the government to not only bring forward the rollout of home care packages - as the Senate is urging - but to also dramatically increase funding for home care packages and extend the CHSP. This is the only way Labor has any chance of getting the waitlist under control and meeting their target.
The warning comes as Labor is widely expected to lose its first substantive vote in the Senate today, when the Greens, Coalition and crossbenchers join forces to compel Labor to bring forward the stalled rollout of home care packages through amendments to Labor's aged care bill. (A procedural motion passed yesterday means the bill and amendments must be considered by the Senate today, before it will then move to the House.)
Background
If they want to continue to receive support, people currently receiving CHSP will be forced to apply for the Support at Home program. Support at Home already has over 200,000 people on its waitlist and just 83,000 packages coming in the first 12 months from November.
The closure of the CHSP, combined with an underinvestment in care and poor design of the new Support at Home program, make the 3 month wait time target untenable, according to inquiry evidence presented by Associate Prof Kathy Eager, who advised on the Aged Care Royal Commission.
In response to the Department's failure to answer straightforward questions to the inquiry, Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne has written in her capacity as inquiry Chair to require that all questions be properly answered.
The Greens will also move in the Senate today to order the Government to release any communications between the Minister's office and the Department, to determine whether the Minister's office may have interfered in how the Department answered the question from the hearing.
Labor has a record of hiding the detail on their aged care debacle, and previously sought to mask the true extent of the home care waitlist, revealed at the inquiry to be over 200,000 once more than 120,000 people awaiting an assessment were accounted for.
Lines from Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Greens spokesperson for Older People and Chair of the inquiry:
"Today the Senate will vote on whether our parents and grandparents should get the care they need, or be left to wait up to a year without basic help.
"This isn't aged care. It's aged carelessness.
"We're calling on Labor to stop toying with people's lives and join the Greens and other non-government Senators, to support our amendments and start helping families who are desperately waiting.
"If Labor would rather cut home care funding than help the hundreds of thousands of older people stuck waiting, their aged care reforms will fail and families left in anguish will never forgive them for it."
"The Commonwealth Home Support Program is cherished in the community, and allows people to stay at home for longer, and stay connected with their communities. The fact that funding is due to be ripped away for 800,000 older people on the very same day that the Government claims it will reach its Support at Home wait time target is as ridiculous as it is cruel.
"In a wealthy country like Australia, we can afford to look after our older people."
