How will the budget cuts affect aged care?
In last year’s Budget, the Federal Government cut funding for Aged Care by $1.2 billion. If the Government cuts funding again in this year’s Budget, concerns are that many elderly Australians will not have affordable access to the care they need.
With an ageing population, the pressures on the system will only get worse if aged care is not properly supported.
The Treasury’s 2015 Intergenerational Report forecast that the number of Australians aged over 65 would more than double over the next 40 years. And, over the same period, the percentage of the population aged 85 and over will grow from 2% to 5%.
The Federal Government has estimated that the industry needs to deliver 76,000 new aged care places by 2026. To put that in perspective, today there are around 200,000 residential operational beds.
We talked with Cameron O’Reilly, CEO of The Aged Care Guild to discuss.
