00:01About 3 million people, maybe just slightly over, will be asked to pay around an extra
00:07dollar a day towards their private health insurance as part of the way the government
00:12has raised the funds for these aged care service improvements that we welcome today.
00:16Yeah, and so what about the fact that the Minister says that that will help pay for
00:20showers for seniors as part of home support?
00:24Yeah, so we've been saying since before the system started, back when we were designing
00:28the system, that you don't have to pay for showering in hospital and you shouldn't have
00:31to pay for showering at home when you need somebody to come and help you have that shower.
00:36We've seen more recent data that shows us that skin irritations are one of the five most common
00:44reasons that people are presenting to hospitals over the age of 65 and so this is a sensible
00:49measure to make sure that people can afford the showering, the dressing, the personal care
00:54services they need to remain safely at home.
00:56Yeah, so just how important is it that the government's gone back on that?
01:00Yeah, so we've heard lots of, let's call it price tag anxiety, where older people have
01:05been contacting their MP, whether it be they're already in the system or whether it be they're
01:10one of the 200,000 people that are still waiting to get into the system, that if they needed
01:15to have support to shower, be it after a hospital, after a fall, those sorts of things, that they
01:20would be nervous, that they wouldn't be able to afford from their own pocket the contribution
01:24they'll have to pay towards that.
01:27And the minister also today announced an additional 5,000 aged care beds each year and 20 additional
01:32specialist dementia care programs.
01:35What did you make of that?
01:36Well, we're very thankful for the aspiration to get to 5,000.
01:41We need to see those beds come online, we need to see plans by providers, but certainly investing
01:48in people with low means, the accommodation supplement as it's called, increasing that
01:53will provide the incentive to providers to be able to bring those beds online in their
01:57plans. But it's not a guaranteed rollout of here's 5,000 beds and they're going to be
02:02there tomorrow. It's going to be a long slog dependent on a lot of providers to step up,
02:07talk about their bills, secure their finances and start turning soil.
02:12Yeah, and so as an indication of what might be coming up in the budget, how did you feel
02:15about what he was saying today?
02:17Yeah, what hasn't been announced today but was signalled in these media releases that
02:21there will be more support at home packages, so we're going to definitely be looking for
02:25that in the budget. We also want to make sure there's strong consumer protections, we're
02:29nervous about the price rises that happened last financial year, we don't want to see
02:34a repeat of those this coming financial year. So we'll be seeing how government puts together
02:38a consumer protection package that makes sure that older Australians get a fair go.
02:43And did you have any particular perspective on the NDIS announcements today as well that
02:48came through in that same speech?
02:50Yeah, look I think there's a lot of things that came through in that speech that a lot
02:53more detail to work through will be starting to work through it. We know there's lots of
02:57older people who missed out of the NDIS. There's an emerging number of people who have clocked
03:01over to 65 while on the NDIS, starting to decide do they stay in the NDIS, do they move into
03:07aged care. What we do know is it's often the same worker that supports you in the same town
03:12and so as we move closer towards more of a care economy rather than NDIS system and an
03:18aged care system, which is what I think we see behind some of these shifts towards things
03:23like the Independent Pricing Authority, things towards assessments. We're seeing now they're
03:27all in the Department of Health a little bit more harmonisation between those care economy
03:31services.
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