Catholic Health Australia (CHA) is calling for reforms to sustain and improve vital hospital and aged care services and patient care for the millions of people living in rural and remote Australia.
"Due to smaller patient volumes and higher costs, regional and remote hospital and aged care services are under the most severe pressures, including financial and workforce," said CHA CEO Jason Kara.
"We want to ensure the one in three Australians who live outside a capital city have the same choice, access and quality of care as everyone else."
In its budget submissions on health and aged care, CHA supports the government's proposal to increase default benefits - the minimum insurers must pay for a treatment - for non-metropolitan hospitals.
CHA is also calling for the introduction of a default benefit for hospital-in-the-home services such as end-of-life care and dialysis, which polling demonstrates 87 per cent of Australians support.
"Default benefits are particularly important in regional areas where services are limited. Increasing them would help put services on a sustainable footing," said Mr Kara.
"Right now many regional and rural patients are travelling long distances for care they could have in the comfort of their homes if only their insurers funded it. A default benefit for hospital-in-the-home care would shift decision making away from insurers and empower patients and their doctors to decide where they receive their care."
Access to aged care remains a critical issue in regional, rural, and remote areas. CHA is urging the government to invest in capital funding to ensure older Australians, regardless of where they live, can access safe and high-quality care.
"After years of losses, services simply don't have the money to expand, upgrade, or refurbish to meet growing demand. The government must boost investment in capital to fund crucial infrastructure upgrades and builds, such as staff accommodation, to ensure viability of services in regional, rural and remote areas."
Aged care services in mining towns such as Broken Hill and Kalgoorlie are at substantial risk as they receive a low geographic weighting for funding despite their remote status due to an antiquated quirk in the system.
The funding model, called the Modified Monash Model, does not accurately reflect the high cost of service provision in mining towns. CHA is calling on the government to change the categorisation for these communities to ensure aged care providers can continue to operate sustainably.
"The current funding model does not account for the unique economic conditions in regional mining towns," Mr Kara said. "Providers in these areas are struggling with extreme cost pressures, and without targeted support, aged care services may be forced to close, leaving older residents without local care options."
In its submissions, CHA is also calling on the government to:
- lift default benefits from 85 per cent to 100 per cent for hospitals in Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Area
- use private hospital capacity to treat public patients on long waitlists
- subsidise wage growth in private hospitals
- increase funding to services in rural and remote mining towns like Broken Hill and Kalgoorlie with high costs
- fund and deliver enough aged care packages to meet demand
