Disability Care and Support - Draft Report
A New System for Disability Care and Support
An entirely new model for providing supports and services for people with a disability is needed, according to a draft report released by the Productivity Commission. The draft report — Disability Care and Support — identifies the current disability support system as underfunded, unfair, fragmented, and inefficient. It gives people with a disability little choice and no certainty that they will get the support they need.
The Commission is proposing two schemes to address the flaws, with a rollout to commence in 2013-14. The biggest scheme, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, would be like Medicare in that all Australians would know that they or their families would get long-term care and support if they acquired a significant disability. A second much smaller scheme would cover people's lifetime care and support needs if they acquired a catastrophic injury from any accident. It would be based on widening and strengthening existing state and territory schemes.
Patricia Scott, the presiding commissioner for the inquiry, said 'Every day nearly 100 people acquire a significant disability. This will have life long impacts on them and their family. Under the proposed new schemes, people would not wait years for suitable wheelchairs or only get two showers a week. Our preliminary estimate is that the additional cost of the big scheme would be around $6 billion per annum.'
The report says that reform is necessary and the current system is not sustainable without significant additional resources. Associate Commissioner, John Walsh said 'We have a 'death spiral' in the current system, with ageing carers unable to cope, giving up their adult children to expensive taxpayer-funded care, leading to reduced respite support, and putting more strain on the remaining carers. Not providing adequate support now requires increased dollars later.'
The report says Australia should move to a system in which people with a disability and their carers have a lot more choice. They could decide what service providers to use and some could cash out their support packages to organise their supports much more flexibly.
The Commission proposes a new body — the National Disability Insurance Agency — to oversee the main scheme. The Australian and State and Territory Governments would appoint its board, but the agency would run the scheme independently, using clear criteria for entry to the scheme, tight controls to ensure that spending is based on reasonable need, and a focus on cost-effectively achieving much better economic and social outcomes for people.
Interested parties and individuals are encouraged to provide feedback on the Commission's draft proposals either by submission or attending its public hearings in April. The final report will be delivered to the Government in July 2011.
For further information and to download the full draft report in pdf or word format please visit www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/disability-support/draft.
Printed Copies
Available on request from Roberta Bausch.
T 02 6240 3221
E disability-support@pc.gov.au |
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