Minister Rae celebrates Aged Care profits while older Australians pay more
2025-11-01
greens.org.au
From today, Labor’s new Aged Care Act comes into force, meaning older Australians will pay more for essential care, including up to $50 just for help with a shower, and some will have to forgo care altogether.

This week, Labor’s Minister for Aged Care, Sam Rae, celebrated rising aged care provider profits in an interview with the ABC. To celebrate rising profits for providers while introducing big new co-payments is a slap in the face to older Australians.

The Greens were the only party to vote against the financialisation of care when the bill moved through the Parliament last year, and have called on Labor to reconsider, reverse the care-for-profit system and instead focus on ensuring every Australian can get the care they need at the time that they need it.

Home care co-payments risk losing care

Under the new Support at Home program, new co-payments mean that older Australians will be forced to pay pay up to $50/hour for help with showers, meals, and basic care at home, based on Department of Health data.

While participants in the old program prior to last September were promised they would be no worse off, but in practice older Australians are facing increased prices and fees resulting in lower levels of service. There is no limit on the amount providers can charge for home care fees until 1 July 2026. Aged care economic advisor StewartBrown has advised providers to increase their fees by between 30 and 38 per cent.

Residential care costs increase while inequity rises

Under the new Act, half of all older Australians will pay more to enter residential aged care, including 3 in 10 full pensioners and 75% of part-pensioners.

Labor have already raised a cap on residential aged care deposits from $550,000 to $750,000, which has driven up prices overnight. Providers can also now keep up to 10% of a residents so called ‘Refundable’ Accommodation Deposit

As Uniting NSW & ACT has warned, aged care residents who can afford this increased upfront deposit (usually from selling their family home) may be worth twice as much in revenue to an aged care facility as an older person who is living week to week, meaning older renters and poor people will find it harder to access care.

Waitlist continues to grow

In last Senate Estimates, it was revealed that as at the end of September, the waitlist for aged care only continues to grow.

The total combined number of people waiting for care (either for an assessment, or for an aged care package) is up from approx 217,000 in June-July to 238,248 at the end of September. Just 63,000 new packages will be released between 1 November and the end of the financial year.

The only reason for a shortage in the availability of home care is that the government chooses to release fewer home care packages than the community needs each year. The Greens-led Senate inquiry, as well as the Royal Commission, recommended ended the ‘rationing’ of care and instead moving to a ‘demand driven’ system, but Labor have rejected this in favour of enforced shortages.

Lines attributable to Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Greens spokesperson for Older People:

“Under Labor’s new Aged Care Act, the worse your health, the more you’ll pay for care.

“From today, a tsunami of co-payments will break on older Australians.”

“Minister Rae is celebrating increased profits for aged care providers, while under Labor’s plan 1 in 3 people on a full pension are paying more for residential care, and others will be charged up to $50 every time they need help with a shower. That’s shameful.”

“Our parents and grandparents deserve to be looked after in their old age, not forced to choose between a shower each day and a meal.”

“Aged care should not be for profit.”

“While 1 in 3 big corporations pay no tax, but older Australians can’t get basic help they need, something is seriously wrong.”

“The Greens will fight to reverse care for profit, to end the shortage of care, and to make sure every older person in this country can get the help they need at the time they need it.”

Disgusting stuff.

The system was bad enough before - my mother could only get 12 hours of help a week on a Level 4 package - but now it's going to be so much worse.

greggerypeccary wrote on Nov 1^st, 2025 at 11:34am:


Yep, my elderly aunt could only get showered 5 days a week (which took about three quarters of an hour) plus a couple of hours "respite" for me every week on a Level 4 package before she went into Aged Care in July.

The packages are paid as monthly payments and you can't exceed the 'budget' allocated for each month.

I'm glad she is being looked after in Aged Care now because, as you say, things are going to get worse from here on.

Carl D wrote on Nov 1^st, 2025 at 11:47am:


In the end, my mother used to get about $4,000 per month on Level 4 and the agency immediately took about 25% of that in fees.

The weekday hourly fee was $72 per hour, so that meant she could only get about 10 hours per week.

If she needed help showering on the weekend we had to reduce hours during the week.

It's nowhere near enough help.

Quote:


My elderly aunt went into aged care on Monday, July 7th.

The following week on Wednesday, July 16th a bill arrived in the mail for $1,635 which was for my aunt's care from July 7th until the end of July. 

After I picked myself up off the floor and took a few deep breaths I logged into my aunt's bank account (I have Power of Attorney and third party access) and arranged a bank transfer or I would have had to gather up the cash with a few trips to an ATM or do a bank transfer from my own account (I would have done this if the bank transfer from my aunt's account didn't work).

We've got direct debit set up now for my aunt's care and medications, etc. so I don't have to deal with that again (especially the 'bill shock') thank goodness.

Aged Care was originally set up for those who had no families to take care of them here in Australia and the cost of it was in accordance.

Then, after the 70's things socially and culturally changed.
Aged Care became a dumping ground for all old people.
Maybe it was the influence of American Media that was (sexually) fixated on Youth as a priority of importance?
Regardless, Australians didn't want the responsibility of looking after their parents. Even 8 adults would dump their mother in such a facility to be tasered for her unhappiness of being so neglected by them.

Thus, the cost of Aged Care is justified.

Medicine's unintended consequences:


Old people live longer dependent, decrepit lives in the first world with not enough of their own offsprings to care for them.

Explosion of young people who survive infant mortality in third world societies that have no work for them.

Carl D wrote on Nov 1^st, 2025 at 12:13pm:


I was appointed Legal Guardian and Finacial Manager for older relative by NCAT she is in aged care.

She had a stroke 3 weeks after Astra Zeneca Covid vaccine blood clot on the brain with these blood clots being a known side effect from that clot shot.

I have direct debit setup for aged care fees happy i don't have it for Pharmacy bills as they have stuffed up a few times with overcharging which had to be corrected her account was credited.
Aged care stuffed up once it pays to check people do get ripped off by accepting they will be 100% right.
I do all this online with bank have council rates due for her property along with public liability insurance.

Aged care is asset tested last time i checked if you have less than around $62K in assets they take 75% of your pension for aged care.
The higher the value of your assets the more you pay.