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An elderly Melbourne man with advanced motor neurone disease is fighting for more government support after an algorithm declared he didn't need a higher level of care. Graham Crossan cannot eat or talk unassisted and relies on a ventilator to breathe. But he's been told he's not eligible for the highest level of federal government home assistance under changes to the way aged care funding is assessed. Advocates say he's not the only one and fear it's another Robodebt in the making.

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00:02Each morning Gaynor Crossan gets her husband Graham ready for the day.
00:09MND has progressively taken Graham's ability to eat, talk and even breathe without help.
00:16We're housebound. We don't go out. Before we used to go to movies, to plays, to concerts, but we don't
00:23do any of that anymore.
00:26We're just going to get Graham up, that's it.
00:29Because he's over 65, Graham can't access the NDIS.
00:34He does receive some aged care support to live at home, but he's been told he doesn't meet the criteria
00:40for the highest level of funding.
00:44So, as costs increase, his carer hours have reduced from an already bare minimum of 14 hours a week to
00:519 hours.
00:52Not even enough to get him in and out of bed.
00:55It's both our safety that is at risk here, because I can't manage Graham on my own.
01:03And the Hamden roar is the sound of the football ground, all implanted into trained spotting sprays.
01:11The knockback came after the government began reassessing aged care packages using an algorithm, which can't be overridden by humans.
01:20The algorithm is something that needs to go, in our opinion. It's just not able to capture what the needs
01:28of somebody is with MND or any other condition.
01:31A federal government spokesperson told the ABC the new assessment process relies on clinical advice to obtain the most accurate
01:40outcomes.
01:41They say the government is monitoring the changes and will refine them as the system matures.
01:46This has the look and feel of the robo-dead experience, and I would hope that government is looking at
01:53it really closely and very quickly.
01:55The worst thing of all is this whole decision is based on a computer algorithm.
02:02How can something like that decide what a person's needs are? It's quite inhumane.
02:11How can something like that decide what a person is? It's quite inhumane.
02:13You
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