Dept of Health and Ageing submits to enquiry
The Department of Health and Ageing has finally presented its submission to the Productivity Commission’s Aged Care Enquiry, well after the official closing date for applications and causing a delay in the draft report which was due in December.
This report will now be released in mid January.
The submission, which can be read at the Productivity Commission’s website, details the financial and policy challenges- and “the inherent policy tensions in the current arrangements of which any reform of the aged care sector would need to be cognisant”.
It says the aged care system is “not well-placed” to meet future demands in its inefficient and heavily regulated state and that “far-reaching innovation will be required if community expectations are to be met. It is unclear current business models can respond appropriately to this need”.
The department estimated an extra 82,000 places would be needed over the next 10 years at a cost of $17 billion.
It said there was lack of competitive pressure to spur efficiencies and that regulated supply of care places “creates an artificial scarcity that limits the scope of competition, blunts pressures for efficiency and innovation and deprives consumers of choice”.
The result was a structure which did not make the most efficient use of scare resources.
“The consequence is persistent technical inefficiency.”
Policies achieved the goal of geographic equity of access “through a complex tangle” of restrictions that impeded flexibility of supply and limited competition.
The department also warned of rising difficulties in finding staff for aged care, saying these would become “more acute” as the proportion of the population requiring care increased.
Visit http://www.pc.gov.au/ for more information.
