Fed Govt should pay for all home and community care says top health expert
A former top adviser to the previous Government, Andrew Podger, says the Rudd Government should pay for the treatment of all people requiring high-level home and community care, to free up hospital beds.
“The states complain that there are people sitting in their hospitals waiting to get into aged care facilities,” he told the Australian newspaper.
“If the Commonwealth said ‘we will pay for anybody who has been assessed as requiring high-level care wherever they are’ … you would actually overcome the problem substantially.”
Mr Podger said this would allow more hospital places for others in the community.
His report to the Howard Government in 2004 on reforming the health system was never made public. The new Government is examining ways to implement its $2 billion plan to fix Australia’s health system over the next four years.
