Super charge extra or Medicare increase for aged care
Increasing life expectancy in Australia means that the need for either community based or institutional care in late life is now a “normal outcome”, according to Professor Allan Borowski, of La Trobe University, Melbourne.
Writing in a letter to The Age, Professor Borowski said that “one way to reduce the pressure on the public purse arising from the increased cost of aged care, is to introduce a long term care social insurance scheme funded, at least in part, by either an increase in the mandatory superannuation guarantee charge, or an increase in the Medicare levy”.
“Countries such as Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, and Germany have introduced such schemes, in order to spread the financial risk of costly aged care across their national populations, and reduce the reliance on general revenue financing”.
“Australia would do well to try to learn from the experience of these countries in exploring alternatives to our heavy and growing reliance on the general revenue to fund aged care”, Professor Borowski said.
