The Australian Government aims to ensure that all frail older Australians have timely access to appropriate care and support services as they age, by providing: information assessment and referral mechanisms; needs-based planning arrangements; support for special needs groups and for carers; a choice of service types; and high quality, accessible and affordable care through a safe and secure aged care system.
Overall Australian Government expenditure for ageing and aged care during 2010-11 totalled $11.024 billion, compared with $9.956 billion in 2009-10 – an increase of 10.7 per cent. This includes aged care support and assistance provided both under and outside the Aged Care Act 1997. The largest single component of expenditure outside the Act was $1.291 billion for the Home and Community Care (HACC) program, which was funded jointly by the Australian Government and state and territory governments in 2010-11. This compares with $1.187 billion in 2009-10. In 2010-11, around 930,000 individuals received HACC services – around 69 per cent of these people were aged 70 years or older.
In 2010-11, through aged care programs under the Act, a total of 219,558 people received permanent residential care in aged care facilities and 46,147 received short-term respite care in aged care facilities. In addition, 74,726 people who would otherwise be eligible for residential care, chose to receive a package of community care and support at home, and a further 17,859 people, on discharge from hospital, received transition care to optimise rehabilitation and allow more time for them to consider long term support arrangements.
Some people received care through more than one aged care program during 2010-11.
The total number of operational aged care places across the aged care system at 30 June 2011 was 247,379 – an increase of 4.3 per cent over the previous year. This included 185,559 residential care places, 58,471 community care places and 3,349 transition care places.