Government announces review on RAC supplementary pricing – Uniting’s leadership team highlight that more work is still to be done

Government announces review into supplementary RAC pricing

Uniting NSW.ACT has been clear and forthright in their view on the incoming pricing models come November 1. As it stands, the accommodation supplement for residents of low means, as compared to the residential aged care deposit (RAD), could mean significant and deeply concerning consequences in terms of inequality and access to high-quality care. As of this week the government, through Minister Rae, has announced the government will be reviewing the pricing models, acknowledging the need to get the complex policy right.

Minister Rae has stated, “This review will make sure we have the right arrangements in place to encourage investment in high quality accommodation that provides the world-class care our loved ones deserve.”

Timing concerns

The leadership team at Uniting NSW.ACT, “welcome the announcement of the review” but raise doubts about the pragmatics of how the government has outlined the review to function. Within the review process, the government notes that the consultation paper will be open to receive comment until 31 October, allowing only 31 days for those who wish to voice their concerns and guidance. The Uniting team firmly confirms their intention to, “contribute” to the consultation paper but offer concerns about the limited, “month’s turnaround”.

The Uniting leadership team also raises concern about the timeline of the review. With the government stating the final report will be tabled in parliament no later than the 1^st of July 2026, the Uniting team assess that, “this is taking the year they initially predicted, this is on schedule, but it’s not bringing it forward.” The team have been campaigning for the review to be brought forward due to the gravity of implications of the pricing model as it stands. In light of the government announcement, Uniting, “maintains the message that the review timeline must be brought forward.”

Dynamic solves are needed

Uniting NSW.ACT head Tracey Burton and many of her contemporaries have raised the impossible decision the pricing model would place providers in, between wanting to support vulnerable Australians and needing to cover costs of running facilities. Burton articulated that the pricing models could not be, “set and forget.”

Minister Rae notes, “It’s crucial that all older Australians, no matter their means, can access residential aged care when they need it.” However, the leadership team at Uniting advocate that not only do the pricing models of supplement versus RAD need to be dynamically reformed but that focus should point to mitigating the overwhelming need for RAC at all, their position is that strategy must shift to “moving policy and reform to bolster help and care at home, that’s the growth area”.

Home care reform central to sustainable RAC

Uniting leadership is clear, along with numerous other provider leadership and sector advocates, “home care is where the enormous need is, with around 200,000 people on the waiting list, we have to manage home care properly.”

Along with Juniper’s leadership, Uniting is clear and firm on the strategy pay-off, getting home care right, the amount of packages, the structure of funding, fair and possible co-payments, and creating an efficient network of providers means, “preventing people going into hospital, preventing people going into residential care, for the whole sector, it is more sustainable and viable to do it properly.”

Core to their recent messaging, and central to their submission will be calling on the government to see the bigger picture in bringing RAC accommodation pricing and demand to sustainable levels. This means pivoting to investing and reforming home care, part of supporting RAC sustainability must be the acknowledgement and review of co-payments for home care. The Uniting team across Australia is unified on this and leaning heavily into having this understood. They “do not want to see the sector fail, co-payments are not fairly or sustainably set up currently”.

Supporting seniors to remain at home

The vulnerable seniors, who would make up the cohort of supplementary spots in aged care, and most likely impacted by current pricing models and the upcoming review, are largely those who are on full pensions and rent. Uniting has been a leader in listening and responding to this cohort. To mitigate the demand on RAC and the problem of the pricing models is to minimise those needing supplementary spots, supporting seniors to stay safely at home for as long as they can is vital to the health and sustainability of the entire aged care sector. Not to mention the viability of hospitals and the health care sector as well.

Uniting will continue to campaign the government to update home care pricing models and co-payments to particularly support “pensioners who rent and are unable to afford co-payments.” Uniting wishes the government to come on side with preventative home care policy to minimise the difficulty and potential grievous inequality posed by the supplementary pricing model for RAC as it stands.

The need to mitigate early entry into hospital and RAC, as well as updating supplementary pricing models for those in RAC, has never been more pronounced. And subsequently, the call for the review to be brought forward has been supported by the majority of sector leaders and advocates.

Urgency of supplementary pricing review

Burton is clear on this, providers want to be able to support every Australian that needs care, this is an issue of urgency. For RAC, the pricing models must be dynamic to support providers in different areas, with different demographics, it cannot be rigid. She calls for “dynamic” models, the review is the place to highlight this clearly. All the more need for the review to be hastened.

“Every provider CEO and executive I’ve spoken to recognises that review of pricing mechanism needs to be brought forward quickly…no one wants to see potential residents miss out…I’ve been speaking to large providers, listed on the stock exchange, and not-for-profit, church-based, all these different providers…this is a concern right across the board, every CEO is concerned and wanting to resolve this.”

Collective approach to complex funding consequences

Leaders and experts across the sector fully acknowledging the complexity of factors that will need to be reviewed to establish a dynamic and multi-faceted set of solves, to make supplement rates, RAD and provider costs work sustainably, Burton supports the sector coming together to figure it out.

“We can work together. We can see the unintended together. We can mature the reform and evolve. We can see the unintended consequences and fix them together and achieve the reform and impact the Royal Commission envisioned.”

The review will need to tackle provider concerns head on. Burton and her contemporaries have long called for the need to avoid the potential ecosystem brought to bear by the current supplement pricing. Awful choice may be cultivated, “the risk in those conditions is that providers can either take a privately funded resident, and all costs are covered, or take a supplementary funded resident at the government’s $69 a day, that will literally cost them money because $69 does not cover accommodation and care costs.”

High-stakes for residents and providers

Minister Rae announced the two heads of the review, Mr Nigel Ray and Associate Professor Nicole Sutton are to be the independent reviewers overseeing the assessment of change and solves, as it pertains to the accommodation supplement and pricing models. Sector-wide leadership know what’s at stake, Burton highlights that vulnerable Australians and those who serve them need bright minds on this complex issue, “It will need the best minds on it, and substantial analysis to get right.”

The review and its heads intend to consult extensively, a must, to gain insight from those who have been calling for change for some time. Residential aged care providers, community teams, and experts across the gamut of aged care, housing and finance will be sought for feedback and deliberation. Advocates too must lean in to provide valuable independent insight.

With the report set to be tabled in parliament by the 1st of July 2026, this does leave concern about the consequences to the pricing model in the interim. The situation on the ground, and potential impossible choices for providers with accepting supplementary residents and covering costs, must be front and center for government as they establish the timing of the review.

The review must tackle stark numbers

Burton and Uniting have plainly run the numbers. A provider with 40% of supported residents will receive a $69.79 a day supplement, that’s $312,000 in RAD format. The national RAD average is $470,000.

Burton highlights that as there is no siding scale of penalising providers who fall below 40%, there is an entrenched logic to bring supported places to zero. The slashed supplement rate is $52.34 a day. The new Act allows for providers to charge up to a maximum of $750,000 RAD. On average, this translates to around $160 a day. The figures display the alarming upcoming reality of the current pricing models.

Urgency of solves

The review is greatly needed and supported by the majority of aged care leaders and experts, so too is the sustained need to bring it forward.

As Burton notes, it will take a coalition of experts leaning in, “being open to evolving and maturing, Government needs to be open to that, we all do.”

Focusing and strategising on the changes to care at home, as well as establishing dynamic funding policy to supplementary pricing is urgently needed in review. Preventing potential harm to supplementary spots in RAC and factors that weaken the viability of a sustainable sector, evolving and maturing policy is profoundly warranted.