With household and government budgets under pressure, the Government’s investment in health and aged care will better balance the changing health care needs of Australians, alongside targeted spending to help strengthen the economy.
We welcome the renewed focus on creating a more accessible, simplified, and integrated health system, and we look forward to working with Government on implementing the broad range of health and aged care reforms which have been announced.
Aged Care
As one of Australia’s leading aged care providers, we commend the Government’s commitment to fund the increase to Award wages for aged care workers. It is an important first step in appropriately recognising people who work in aged care for the important work they do and helps attract and retain people in the sector, particularly in regional areas.
The changes to migration rules announced today and the new Aged Care Industry Labour Agreements will help providers find much needed employees. We appreciate the Government’s decision to extend the current arrangements for student visa holders working in aged care. These are some positive steps towards mitigating the workforce shortages that the sector will continue to face, particularly in regional areas.
The substantial uplift in funding to the aged care sector will make significant progress in ensuring that funding covers the true cost of care. Appropriate funding is critical to the long-term sustainability of the aged care sector, given the increasing gap between what is expected of providers, and what is funded.
With the economy facing inflation of 7%, this funding increase will help alleviate some of the financial pressures facing many providers. We look forward to continued progress to ensure the aged care sector can provide high quality care to a growing population, in a sustainable way.
Primary Health Care
We support the Federal Government’s vision for Medicare. There are encouraging signs that Medicare reform will enhance our primary healthcare system so that it is fit-for-purpose, improves accessibility and can ensure the best health outcomes for a modern Australia.
We welcome the opportunity for greater industry collaboration to give customers a stronger voice and continue to support our world-leading mixed health system.
Vaping reform
We welcome the Government’s provision of significant funding for tobacco and vaping reforms, and national lung cancer screening.
This investment will go towards discouraging people from taking up smoking and vaping and encourage more people to quit alongside additional support for the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program to help reduce vaping among First Nations people, and earlier detection of lung cancer.
These programs will also support the work of our health professionals across Australia who support patients to help them quit smoking and live healthier lifestyles.
About us:
About Bupa Asia Pacific
Bupa is an international healthcare group which has been committed to a purpose of helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives and making a better world for more than 70 years. Bupa Asia Pacific operates in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, supporting about 7.3 million customers through a broad range of health and care services including health insurance, aged care, dental, medical, optical and hearing services. Employing more than 22,000 people in the region, we believe that we can make a real difference to the lives of customers through our values, purpose and the way that we deliver personalised care.
Over the past 17+ years we have invested more than AUD$36 million in partnerships and programs focused on improving health of communities across Australia.
