Having supported and welcomed the introduction of the Aged Care Funding Instrument, Catholic Health Australia offered a number of recommendations it felt would improve the system upon its introduction.

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People with a profound or severe disability should be entitled to lifelong care and support, Catholic Health Australia has told the Inquiry. This could be done through a Commonwealth-funded scheme to guarantee appropriate care for all people aged over 65 who are assessed as in need of care, regardless of the setting in which that care is delivered.

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Under current arrangements, the Commonwealth is the purchaser and price setter for residential aged care, with provision for co-payments from residents assessed as capable of contributing to the cost of their care. However, because the Commonwealth also controls most aspects of the supply of aged care services, there is no market informed basis for setting prices for these services. Catholic Health Australia argues for a long term and transparent basis for setting fair prices.

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CHA's response to the Department of Health and Ageing's recent issues paper on enhanced prudential arrangements for residential aged care accommodation bonds.

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Download the final submission

CHA has provided a submission to the Productivity Commission in response to its draft Report Caring for Older Australians, which was released in January 2011 for public consultation.  In its response, CHA notes that the Commission's draft recommendations embrace the reform directions put in CHA's submissions to the Inquiry, which called for fundamental reform of aged care in order to secure its sustainability and improve its responsiveness to individual consumer needs.  CHA's response, however, also canvases a number of aspects of some proposals which, if addressed , would strengthen the overall reform package.  Also attached is a supplementary submission made following CHA's appearance at the Commission's public hearings in April 2011 at which CHA was invited to provide specific comment on a number of issues.

• Download Supplementary submission in response to draft PC Report Caring for Older Australians - April 2011
• Download CHA's response to the PC's draft Report Caring for Older Australians (March 2011)
• Download attachment (Transition Arrangements) to CHA's response to PC's draft report (March 2011)
• Download CHA' Supplementary submission to PC Inquiry Caring for Older Australians (July 2010)
• Download CHA's initial submission to PC Inquiry Caring for Older Australians (April 2010)

In its submission on palliative care in Australia, Catholic Health Australia calls on governments to be mindful of some of society's most vulnerable and marginalised -- including those in prison, those with a disability and those with a mental illness -- when making plans on how best to deliver palliative care.

Click here to read CHA's submission.

Catholic Health Australia has conducted a national survey of aged care providers to assess the level of access to GPs enjoyed by residents of aged care homes, and the quality of information and interactions between GPs and aged care providers.

Click here to access the survey results.

Following a 2009 forum on the changing face of aged care, Catholic Health Australia produced a policy paper that presented a package of reforms to improve the responsiveness and sustainability of community aged care services.

Click here to download the policy paper.

CHA adopted in July 2008 a new vision for aged care - The Aged Care Policy Blueprint which it seeks to see achieved by 2020.   The Aged Care Policy Blueprint is a product of wide consultation with the operators of Catholic Aged Care services.  The last major reform of residential aged care policy occurred in 1997. CHA considers that it is time for the next major reforms to be implemented.

Click here to download the blueprint.