The following article was published by The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia, in its issue of February 25th, 2004.
Reproduction of articles, together with acknowledgement if appropriate, is welcome. The Guardian, 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills, Sydney 2010 Australia. Editor: Anna Pha Communist Party of Australia, 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 10 Australia. General Secretary: Peter Symon Phone (02) 9212 6855 Fax: (02) 9281 5795 Email CPA [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Guardian [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription rates are available on requests. In debt for life: Howard's aged care policy Bob Briton By now the Federal Government should have its hands on a report on the aged-care sector conducted by Sydney economist Warren Hogan. The 18-month $7.2 million project is expected, among other things, to recommend that new residents entering high-care nursing homes be expected to produce $100,000 up front as a bond for their accommodation and services. This amount would be raised from the sale of or borrowing against the family home, if needs be. The bond has been described as a "loan" from the residents to the nursing home operators to help them expand bed numbers and to "wean" the aged-care industry off its dependence on Commonwealth subsidies. At least, that's how the big players in the field and the mainstream media are selling the concept. In fact, the "lenders" in this case would get less back than they loaned in the first place and would most likely only "collect" when they die! It is anticipated that the proposed scheme would parallel the one already in place for residents of low-care accommodation. An amount of $3000 is drawn from the bond every year for the first five years and so nursing home residents get an $85,000 return on their $100,000 "loan". No interest on the "loan", no allowance for inflation. Those who took out a mortgage on the family home to raise the $100,000 would also be paying out interest on that! The Howard Government tried to impose the same policy in 1997 but backed off in the face of public outrage. The media still refers to this as a "scare campaign" based on the fear that the most vulnerable elderly people would be forced to sell the family home in order to get the care that they needed. The problem for the government and its media spin-doctors is that the fear was based on cold hard fact. No doubt the government at that time thought that the proposal had all the classic elements of the wedge politics they love. Nobody gets hurt . immediately, that is. And the perception that those people expected to cough up can afford it! The government would like us to equate owning the family home with being "asset-rich". They also want us to think that the only ones to lose out would be the children of the deceased residents - greedy "baby-boomers" just waiting to get their hands on the parents' property: such is the contempt of the government for ordinary working class people. The Hogan report is also expected to recommend greater freedom for home operators to set their own prices and for the auctioning of the licences currently issued by the Commonwealth to run facilities. It would also allow different levels of care based on a resident's ability to pay. The whole thrust of the recommendations is reported to be for an extension of the deregulated, user-pays path we have been travelling along in aged care throughout the '90s. Taking an each-way bet, Prime Minister Howard has, well, sort of ruled out the idea of a bond. "It's not part of our policy. I don't normally support things that aren't part of our policy", he told the Herald Sun last week. The Labor leader also sounds less than emphatic. "We've opposed that policy in the past and . while you always have a process, you look at these reports", Mark Latham told ABC Premium News. The reality is that the governments of countries like Australia are being told by their controllers that spending $4.3 billion a year on subsiding nursing homes is not on! Growing profits (from the aged care "industry" and taxation) and greater productivity are not going to be squandered on an ageing population while big capital is in the driver's seat. And as the aged care final solution - corporate operators of nursing homes accessing the financial markets and selling their high-cost product on an open market - is being implemented, the existing arrangements are being run down. Another cold hard fact: last year Commonwealth funding to nursing homes increased by just 2.2 per cent while the CPI is put conservatively at 3.3 per cent and the number of aged is on the rise. Bed occupancy rates are at an extremely high 96 per cent - a situation that gives elderly people little choice of accommodation. Declining profitability under the current arrangements saw the Salvation Army close 15 of its 42 nursing homes earlier this month. The government is due make its decisions on the report by the time of Budget in May. Get ready for a lot of tough talk about "intergenerational" and demographic issues in the coming months. See all Guardian articles for this week at www.cpa.org.au/guardian ************************************************** -- Visit the proposed Leftlink web site at http://www.leftlink.net/ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
