The heat is on: Nine weeks until the Aged Care Taskforce must deliver its first insights into a sustainable funding solution for Australia’s aged care system

There are just 65 days until October when the Taskforce, chaired by Minister for Aged Care and Sport Anika Wells, is due to present its interim advice – and just 18 weeks until December when the Final Report is expected to be handed down.

On Tuesday, the Taskforce gathered in Adelaide for its second meeting after holding its inaugural meeting (pictured) last month.

You can see the full list of its members here.

Sources told the Financial Review that most of the discussion on Tuesday focused on Plan B – increasing consumer contributions for older Australians who can afford to contribute to their aged care services.

This includes lifting the $186,000 means test threshold on the family home, which has been in place since 2014 – almost a decade.

However, Minister Wells told ABC’s Radio National yesterday morning that the Taskforce had not yet settled on adopting any changes to means testing – yet.

But the Minister did confirm the members had agreed on a set of six principles, which would now be consulted on with stakeholders and the community before their next meeting in August. 

Details of the public consultation will be released in “the next couple of days”, she stated. 

The takeaway?

The Taskforce will be pushed for time to develop its advice ahead of its tight reporting deadlines.

Under its Terms of Reference, the Taskforce only meets once a month for three to five hours – is this enough time to canvas all the possible funding options?

The Taskforce also has the challenge of bringing the community into the conversation – a fact acknowledged by Minister Wells.

“It’s a transformative thing that we are doing,” she said. “We’ve got to take everybody with us.”

The reality is the Taskforce will need to work very quickly, given their reports will likely take at least a few weeks to write and be checked by the politicians and Treasury.

The interim report is almost certainly underway – good news for a sector where the issue of finding the funding required to deliver the quality aged care services that older Australians want and deserve has long been unresolved.

The SOURCE: the Aged Care Taskforce must put its skates on if it wants to meet its deadlines. The aged care sector should be closely following its progress.