Out of touch policy to out of pocket fees– shock as aged care cost gaps widen for senior australians with impacts on provider monthly cashflows

Just over a month into the new aged care changes and the cracks continue to widen. The multi-pronged fault lines of inflating waitlists for Support at Home packages and copayment fees has seniors and families reeling. The changes, framed as balancing tax-payer burden for aged care, and upholding access to a person-centred and dignity based care system, miss the ethos of the act in implementation. Between interminable wait times for aged care packages, and then the subsequent fear over covering copayment fees to cover services like showering, it is not just seniors bracing. The impact on in-home provider cash-flow is beginning to pinch, with heads expressing a concern over balancing the books to keep operations and front-line staff paid. For RAC providers, the lack of access to in-home care is steeling executives to prepare for an influx of unnecessary early admissions as well.

Waitlists persist

Searing senate findings into the Support at Home changes, led by Senator Allman-Payne of the Greens, has seen considerable pressure on the incumbent government to improve numbers. However, the latest figures show that 107,281 senior Australians are still waiting for their packages.

While this figure is an improvement of around 15,000 packages since 30 September, both advocates and in-home provider leaders remind that accessing timely services is critical for sustaining health and preventing decline.

Clearance rate

Two months to clear 15,000 would see the last of those currently waiting to remain on the waitlist, with no package and funding, and no access to services, for at least 14 months.

This calculated in the understanding that no new applications are submitted, which is an impossibility, advocates calling for the eradication of a waitlist at all see this as a shrinking possibility.

The case remains that the processing of wait lists, for seniors, and for providers who are reliant on government funding to remain operational, is likely to mean sustained significant personal and financial viability losses for clients and providers across the aged care sector.

Senate estimates revelations

Through Senator Ruston’s focused questioning in last week’s senate estimates, the starker picture of the nature of those packages even cleared has emerged.

Of the 15,000 cleared since the close of September, it has been disclosed to the senate that the packages were only funded to a 60% threshold. The confirmation that packages are partially funded not only reduces the efficacy of the packages themselves in supporting access to timely and needed in-home services but highlights continued systemic obstacles in implementing changes to keep seniors at home for longer and healthier, and out of grievously strained hospitals and early admissions in RAC.

When asking about the percentage of fully funded to interim funded packages, Senator Ruston received an answer that has many advocates and provider leaders perplexed and frustrated.

“What percentage of new Support at Home approval since October have been allocated as interim funding as opposed to full funding?”

She was answered, “93%”. This equates to around 13,950 of the packages approved over the last two months.

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing publicly states that full funding becomes active around the 10 week mark after approval on average. Yet for those with daily needs, waiting for close to two and a half months means the possibility of significant health decline, not to mention months for providers to keep operations going without payments.

The revelations in the senate estimates highlight that it is not only the concern of covering the everyday living copayments towards showers that are a concern but those in the clinical and independent living categories as well.

With packages covered at 60%, thousands of Australians are in the position of restricted access to services like nursing and allied health, as well as transport to see GPs. Critical to maintaining health, funding is of significant concern for the seniors, and the providers that need government funding to come through to cover operational costs.

Free market

Up until 1 July 2026, the government has allowed for prices of in-home services to be set at will, with advocates calling out poor performers who seem to be raising prices out of line with reasonable operational needs.

Seniors have shared with Hello Leaders the immediate upward trending of prices since November 1, in some cases looking to closely double.

In speaking to Nine news, Patricia Sparrow, from Council on the Ageing, confirms what has been happening across the market, “because the price went up, their services are going to decrease and that’s incredibly distressing and concerning for people, who may have waited months and months to get this package.”

Wider fracture points

Fronting media this week, Senator Allman-Payne shares, “we have heard of some people who have been stuck in hospitals for up to a year, that is unacceptable”.

And while government showcases that funding for aged care has increased by billions over the last decade, advocates and sector leaders are continuing to call on that money being spent strategically, to honour the seniors and tax-payers of today and future generations.

Countless experts too have weighed in affirming the logic and return on investment of funding preventative measures for seniors to remain at home, and to remain there with improved health. Measures and programs to safeguard senior health at home is likely warranted to result in decreased pressure on a hospital and RAC systems at breaking and full occupancy points respectively.

State and federal health ministers to meet

Next week will see federal and state ministers meet again amid the ongoing dispute over hospital funding. The sore point being the reported thousands of seniors stuck in hospital without possibility of discharge due to no viable destinations.

State ministers have been advocating for the prior approved increase of billions to the hospital system, to deal with the saturated numbers being cared for, however advocates say that the picture must be made larger.

While federal government works to update policy to support the drastic increase in bed build rates that are needed to meet Australia’s ageing population, experts remind that it is in preventative measures that time will be bought for beds and hospitals to recover, improve and increase capacity.

Support at Home has been earmarked as one the central responses to Australia’s ageing population. For those entering into aged care, and the thousands of personnel that work to uphold the aged care sector, the program must work, in timeliness of packages, in full funding, and in preventative measures to keep seniors where they should be, at home.

Preventative measures are good for seniors, multiple sectors and good for the tax-payer.