Co-payments for aged care services, such as showering, dressing and continence care, will be scrapped from October 1. <\/p>\n
Aged Care Minister Sam Rae says the changes will provide more help in aged care.<\/p>\n
As of October 1, older Australians will no longer face out-of-pocket costs for help with these services under changes the Albanese government will make to the Support at Home aged care program. <\/p>\n
As part of the upcoming federal budget, these essential personal care services will be moved to the scheme\u2019s clinical care category.<\/p>\n
\u201cShowering, dressing, continence care \u2013 these aren\u2019t optional extras, they\u2019re the basics of ageing with dignity and no older Australian should miss out because of cost,\u201d Mr Rae said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOlder Australians, their families and providers told us these services needed to be protected. We\u2019ve listened and we\u2019re acting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health, Ageing and NDIS Minister Mark Butler will outline further details on the aged-care package during his address to the National Press Club \u2013 where he is expected to announce sweeping changes to the NDIS \u2013 later on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Greens will not back NDIS reforms<\/p>\n
Ahead of Mr Butler\u2019s speech, Greens leader Larissa Waters criticised the government for targeting the NDIS as part of its efforts to rein in spending. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur system of care is being diminished, while Labor wastes billions on (defence pact) AUKUS and let the 1 per cent opt out of paying their fair share,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Greens will not support Labor trying to balance the budget off the back of disabled people. <\/p>\n
\u201cTaking from disabled people to give to people in aged care is a cynical political exercise from Labor.<\/p>\n
\u201cPitting people who genuinely need care against each other while leaving $17 billion in the pockets of gas corporations they\u2019re too cowardly to tax is shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n
NDIS \u2018design\u2019 problem: McKenzie<\/p>\n
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said earlier the NDIS was suffering from a \u201cdesign problem\u201d and must be addressed as more than just a \u201ccost-shifting exercise\u201d, <\/p>\n
The NDIS was introduced by the Gillard Labor government in 2013 and is a taxpayer-funded service that supports Australians living with disability. It costs $50bn per year and is expected grow to $100bn within a decade.<\/p>\n
Senator McKenzie told Seven\u2019s Sunrise the opposition was committed to working with the government \u201cto get the NDIS under control\u201d, ensuring it was sustainable into the future and delivered the essential services needed by Australians with a severe and permanent disability. <\/p>\n
She claimed the majority of NDIS providers were unregistered, leading to compliance and standards issues, and said the system was rife with \u201crorting\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the NDIS itself said 10 per cent of claims were non-compliant, and that means that\u2019s $5bn, that\u2019s their own assessment,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo we need to get it on sustainable footing. It\u2019s a design problem, but it can\u2019t just be a cost-shifting exercise from the government back onto states. It needs to fix the problem at its heart, which is around design.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, Labor MP Josh Burns told the same program that the government had no choice in reforming the program. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why we have to is because the NDIS is there for people with a severe disability, a permanent disability, and it needs to be there for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, if we if we don\u2019t do anything, if we let it just grow, it\u2019s going to be the biggest government program, the most expensive thing government does in Australia, and it\u2019s just not sustainable, so it needs to be there for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ballooning NDIS cost has made it a key area of focus in efforts to rein in federal spending, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers describing the scheme as one with the Albanese government\u2019s wholehearted support but also \u201ca really big part of our pre-budget deliberations\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Co-payments for aged care services, such as showering, dressing and continence care, will be scrapped from October 1.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,180257,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-622602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-newswire-politics","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}