Extract from ABC News
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About 80,000 volunteers deliver the meals to people all over Australia. (Kate Hill (ABC Local))
Meals On Wheels, the volunteer service that delivers
15 million meals a year to 53,000 elderly Australians, is about to
become more expensive under a Federal Government proposal.
The
Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association (CPSA) said if the
Government's plan went ahead, it could be cheaper for pensioners to
order takeaway from a restaurant.The proposed changes are part of the Government's consolidation plan for state-based home support schemes, set to be launched in July.
CPSA spokeswoman Charmaine Crowe believed the new fee structure would raise the cost of home support services, including Meals On Wheels.
She warned that rather than supporting older Australians in their homes, the federal scheme could force them into nursing homes earlier than necessary.
For many older Australians, a little bit of help around the house can be the difference between maintaining an independent life in their own homes and the upheaval of moving into a residential care facility.
It can take the form of domestic help or personal care, home nursing or a hot cooked meal brought to their door.
Ms Crowe said the cost of home care services could double under the Government's proposal.
"We think that the department needs to go back to the drawing board," she said.
"For instance at the moment they are going to charge a full rate pensioner $9 per meal, plus the cost of the ingredients.
"Now for that pensioner it may well be cheaper to order food through Lite n' Easy rather than get a Meals On Wheels meal, which is just outrageous."
Meals On Wheels has been helping Australians for about 60 years. It provides food at production cost and currently charges between $4.50 and $12 per meal.
About 80,000 volunteers deliver the meals to people all over Australia.
Worries older people might drop home care services
The chief executive of Aged and Community Services Australia, John Kelly, said the Government's proposed changes were difficult to understand."They're also significant in costs on consumers, from a co-contribution perspective," he said.
Mr Kelly said older Australians would have to pay more to receive the level of in-home services they had become used to.
"And they will continue to increase as we move further in time, it's inevitable," he said.
Ms Crowe said in many cases a lot of people paid a very low fee or no fee at all for some services.
"But the proposed policy is making the cost of home care for many disadvantaged old people prohibitive," she said.
"Our concern is that if it gets through, a lot of people are going to drop their services or stop receiving home care services altogether."
She said she was worried that if older Australians cut back on home care services due to increased costs, it could have adverse consequences for their health and wellbeing.
And that could meant many older Australians giving up their independence and moving into a nursing home.
"The Government has been wanting to put together a unified fee structure for home care services across the country," Ms Crowe said.
"At the moment it's state-based, the fees, and depending on which state you live in you may well pay a different fee for the same service.
"Our concern though is that what they've proposed really increases the cost of these services, even though the consultation paper says that they reflect the average fees charged on a national basis."
Government says fees remain subject of consultation
The Federal Government said it wanted to make the financing of aged care arrangements fairer and more sustainable, and that fees for home support services remained the subject of consultation.Assistant Social Services Minister Mitch Fifield pointed out that the aged care industry had until the middle of April to comment on the changes.
Ms Crowe said some of that feedback had already been delivered to the Assistant Minister's door.
Those who rely on home care services are also able to provide feedback.
"Well, the department's got a single decision to make, and that decision is based on whether they want older people to continue using these critical services, which we know keep older people out of hospitals and keep them out of the nursing home, which is far more expensive to provide in terms of care than what homecare is," Ms Crowe said.
"The average cost of the nursing home per year, per person, is now $56,000.
"When we look at the cost of the services being provided to people in received home care, that's only around $2,300.
"So it's pretty clear that this is a very cost-effective service and we cannot see any reason to increase the cost of the service for the care recipients, particularly if it means that they're going to drop the service altogether."
Mr Kelly said price increases were inevitable but he urged the Government to delay its full roll-out.
"The Government have already said they'll transition fees in between now and November, even though the scheme will start in July," Mr Kelly said.
"We might find that that has to be extended and that the feedback from consumers is that one, that one they don't understand any of this, two, they don't think they can afford it, and three, that it's inequitable in the one hit.
"There may be some feedback from consumers that this has to be transitioned in a different way."
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