$27 billion is needed to ensure high-quality care for the aged over the next four years.
The Health Services Union demanded an increase in the Medicare levy for the improvement of aged care. An increase from 2% to 2.65% has been demanded by the union as Morrison’s government faces scrutiny from parliament.
HSU just finished its proposal to the aged care royal commission for additional funding for aged care improvement. The union said that the funding of about $2bn to $27bn would be needed to initiate necessary changes within the sector.
The majority of the funding would be given off as a salary for the aged care workforce to improve retention and reduce churn within the sector.
The estimates were calculated after tinkering with submission models of care hours and salary increase, and to fulfill the said estimates, the Medicare levy should be increased by between 0.1% to 0.65%.
Research for the aged care royal commission outlined a $621m increase for aged care funding to improve the services up to basic standards.
The University of Queensland, who spearheaded the research, found out that best quality aged care homes were that of small-sized or owned by the government.
Scott Morrison affirmed that the aged care royal commission has been considering steps for a gradual reform in the sector. Meanwhile, Labor leader Anthony Albanese pointed out that major structural reform is needed to rehabilitate the tiring sector.
Albanese even said that the sector has been suffering from neglect that halted innovations to improve aged care.
He added that reform may require a long-term to complete the course. However, a short term response is also needed to deal with the immediate issues faced by the sector especially in Victoria wherein a series of COVID-19 outbreaks took place in aged care facilities.
The Morrison government has been criticised after Peter Rozen QC, counsel for the aged care royal commission said that the commission fails to come up with necessary plans to deal with COVID-19.
However, the government said that the claims of Rozen were not true.
When the parliament resumes, Labor is expected to persist in forwarding plans for improvement for the aged care sector.
