Credit to the government for not simply ruling out making better-off Australians with healthy superannuation balances contribute more towards the cost of their care.
It is more than two decades since Peter Costello’s first Intergenerational Report flagged the rising cost of health and aged care services as one of the big fiscal challenges for a rapidly ageing society. Today, the number of people aged 65 years and over has increased to 27 for every 100 of working age – and that is projected to rise to 38 in the next four decades.
So, with a federal election due early next year, credit to the government for not simply ruling out the Review’s proposals for making better-off Australians with healthy superannuation balances contribute more towards the cost of their care.Aged care reform is one of the issues that might benefit from the extra political leeway offered by the four-year terms that both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have expressed support for.
This picks up on the findings of the 2020 Callaghan retirement incomes review that most people die with the bulk of their superannuation balances intact. The review’s support for replacing partly refundable accommodation bonds – usually paid for by sale of the family home to help pay for nursing home operational and capital costs – with a simpler rental-only charge by 2035 is therefore welcome.
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