Self-funded retirees entering a nursing home after July next year face an average $40,000 extra coming out of their own pocket if the Albanese Government adopts the recommendations of its aged care taskforce for greater personal co-contributions. Source: The Australian.
With uncertainty now clouding the future of landmark new aged care laws after hopes for a bipartisan deal in Canberra this week were dashed at the 11th hour, industry analysis shows the average cost of the reforms to a self-funded retiree paying a Residential Accommodation Deposit would be $49 a day, or $18,000 a year.
This would comprise an extra $19 a day for everyday living expenses such as food and laundry, and $30 per day more for their accommodation costs, which will come off the RAD.
With the average length of stay in nursing care sitting at 2.2 years, this equates to just short of $40,000 in total for each resident.
The additional payments would apply to the 55 per cent of all nursing home residents who don’t receive a government pension. About 30 per cent of the nation’s approximately 200,000 aged care residents pay some form of RAD.
With the financially strapped sector crying out for investment, the additional user-pays component proposed by the taskforce would add $1.35 billion a year into a sector when the changes are fully phased in after a grandfathering period, the analysis from leading aged care accountants StewartBrown shows.
And with the median house price in cities close to $1m, or $630,000 in the regions, it argues the additional costs are easily affordable for those retirees.
The taskforce also recommended higher co-contributions for all older Australians receiving in-home care packages.
If this is included in the Government’s reforms, as expected, it would result in them paying an extra $3850 a year, or $10.55 a day, toward services such as home maintenance and cleaning.
Full details of the proposed new aged care legislation are yet to be made public and now face further delays, with some Opposition members understood to have expressed last-minute reservations.
FULL STORY
Self-funded retirees’ $40,000 extra bill for nursing home user-pays (By Stephen Lunn and Sarah Ison, The Australian)
