SARAH FERGUSON, HOST: At the weekend, the Government introduced a new payment system as part of its aged care reforms, where older Australians will make a contribution to their home care packages, with hardship assistance if they can't afford it. Sam Rae is the Minister for Aged Care, I spoke to him earlier. Sam Rae, welcome to 7.30.
SAM RAE, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SENIORS: Sarah, thanks for having me.
FERGUSON: Australia, like many countries, faces an ageing population. Is this suite of reforms that the Government has devised enough to meet that oncoming demand?
RAE: You're very right, Sarah. We do face an ageing population. It's one of the great public policy challenges of our time. And we want every single older person across Australia to be able to access safe, dignified, and high-quality aged care services. And that has been the guiding principle really since the Royal Commission handed down its findings under the Morrison government. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a range of commitments ahead of the 2022 election, and we worked tirelessly since we were elected to Government to pursue that ambition - safe, dignified, and high-quality aged care for every older Australian.
FERGUSON: Now, in terms of assessments, because this is the system that's been in place now, privatised assessments, that’s been in place since the end of last year. What happens in the most urgent cases, like the one that we referred to in our story? Should you have a priority system for those most urgent cases to make sure that people get assessed immediately?
RAE: The assessment process has historically been very complex, Sarah. And you’re right, at the end of last year, we put in place the Single Assessment System. This was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission, and that has gone through a period of maturing over the last 11 months. We're now starting to see the benefits of that Single Assessment System, both in terms of the experience of older people and their families that are interacting with the system, and of course in terms of the measurement that we do at a Government end. The median assessment wait time at the moment is 23 days, and just in the last quarter, we saw that improve by 8 days. So, we are seeing rapid improvements, but of course, I want to see older people - and the people that love them - being able to access an assessment and care system that is agile and able to respond to their needs. So we'll keep working to make sure that that assessment system is part of a broader ecosystem is that is responsive to the needs of older people in our community.
FERGUSON: Look, obviously medians can be very misleading, but just stay with this issue of priority, cause it's obviously at the sharp end of people's experiences. Why don't you have a priority system when someone who has a whole series of red flags around their situation - like the gentleman in our story - that their case doesn't get pushed up the system? Why should someone in a priority setting like his wait so many weeks, in fact, in his case, too many weeks, before getting reassessed?
RAE: Well, we don't want anyone in a situation where they are waiting for such a long period of time, Sarah. It's why these reforms have been so critical. As I said, that median assessment wait time for the last quarter is down to 23 days. And you, fairly, make the point that there is some variability around that. And we'll continue to invest in the assessment system so that, no matter where people live in Australia, they can continue to access those assessment services. In terms of the way our National Priority System works after the assessment - we like to make sure that everybody who gets a clinical assessment of high priority receives their care packages within a single month. That's part of the way that we prioritise the distribution of care, so it's both equitable as well as responsive to the needs of older people.
FERGUSON: And if you're able to just give me a yes or no answer on this one, Sam Rae, are people waiting longer for assessments than they were under the old system?
RAE: No. Assessment wait times are considerably improving. As I said, just in the last quarter, we saw that improvement in terms of the median time coming down by 8 days. We'll continue to drive that assessment wait time down.
FERGUSON: But what about a priority system for the most- for the people in the most urgent need of care?
RAE: We want a system that provides efficiency on an equitable basis, Sarah. Roughly 40 per cent of assessments that occur across Australia are conducted within the state and territory health systems and, often, that is the space where people who have high or complex needs are assessed and the wait times there are very low indeed, sometimes less than a day. So there are systems in place to make sure that people who have the most acute needs do receive both assessments and care as quickly as possible.
FERGUSON: On co-payments, obviously co-payments are anathema to the Labor Government in Medicare. Why do they belong in aged care?
RAE: Well, we want to ensure that, with that ageing population and the dynamics that that brings, that we have a sustainable system. As I said before, that that system is equitable in terms of its access. Means-tested co-payments, and that's very important, means-tested co-payments are a critical component of ensuring both the sustainability and the equitability of the system. The Federal Government will continue to pay for 100 per cent of all clinical care for in-home care recipients. And then there are some means-tested co-payments where people have the means to make a co-payment for their care, they are being asked to do so.
Importantly here, Sarah, that has to be done and implemented with a robust system of protections in place for people who are of lower means or who have particular vulnerabilities. We have systems in place to ensure that if people aren't in a position to make a co-contribution or that their circumstances evolve, that there’s not an interruption to the continuity of their care.
FERGUSON: So, how do you prevent the poorest Australians from foregoing the care that they need because they determine they cannot afford even the modest co-payment that you're asking?
RAE: Well again, 100 per cent of all clinical care costs are met by the Government, and we have very robust hardship provisions in place. So, if a person's circumstances evolve and they are unable to make a co-contribution, the hardship provisions provide such that their care is continuous and there's no interruption, and that their co-payment doesn't become a hindrance to them accessing the care that they need.
FERGUSON: Do you accept that it will be a threshold succeed or fail for you if those wait times can't be brought down - wait times for assessments for elderly people?
RAE: As I said, Sarah, we've been working on this ambitious - this is a generational reform process, and it has many aspects. This is a complex system, the aged care system, and we would like to reduce some of the complexity through these reforms. But I also want to be very straightforward with people that we won't be able to reduce all of that complexity. We've already seen significant improvements in outcomes for older people. Over the last couple of years, we've seen an additional 7.1 million minutes of care delivered to older people every single day. We now have 24/7 registered nurses in residential aged care facilities, and we've invested $17 billion in wages for aged care workers so that we can retain and attract the very best human beings to provide this very special care to the people that we love.
Saturday was a big day - it marked the beginning of the new Aged Care Act and, with that, the Statement of Rights for Older People as well as the Support at Home program. Assessments are a critically important part of the work that we’re doing, and I will remain, as I am, focused on all of the reform program. I will remain focused on the assessment part to make sure we get that right, along with the rest of the ecosystem that ultimately delivers the best care outcomes and, ideally, joyful quality of life for our older people across our country.
FERGUSON: I'll note that you didn't answer yes or no whether it would be a threshold success or failure for you, but you've given an expansive description of the new system. Sam Rae, thank you very much indeed for joining us.
RAE: Thank you, Sarah.