Australia's "aging" problem? What say ye?

[Lance]

Quite an interesting article about aging - and it's not unique just to Australia.

Why boomers are FURIOUS after being told they should coughup more cash to ease the burden on millennials: 'People think we're greedy'
Story by Padraig Collins For Daily Mail Australia

Baby boomers are furious at a new report suggesting they should pay more for their aged care to ease the burden on millennials, with the sector predicted to cost taxpayers nearly $64billion by 2034.

Currently, taxpayers foot a bill of more than $30 billion to support elderly Australians with the cost of their aged care.

But the idea boomers should pay more for their aged care if they can afford it has been rejected out of hand by Beverly Baker of the Older Women's Network in NSW.

'When it comes to old age, we're viewed as a burden ... as greedy,' she told Channel 10's The Project on Tuesday night.

'We fund childcare, we fund schools. We fund private health. We fund a raft of things and they're never considered to be a burden.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the huge cost to taxpayers will keep increasing as 'over the next four decades, the number of Australians aged 85 and over will more than triple.

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'So there's going to be an extraordinary amount of pressure.'

Tom Symondson of the Aged and Community Care Providers Association said: 'The taxpayer as a whole already funds 75 per cent of residential care and 59 per cent of home care.

'We need to look at whether wealthier Australians can contribute more ... We have had a financially unsustainable aged care system for decades and everyone knows it.'

A previous royal commission into the sector suggested a 1 per cent Medicare-style levy to fund the services, but the new report rejected that proposition.

There are suggestions, though, that home ownership status or whether or not someone is eligible for the aged pension could be considered in deciding if those using the aged care sector should pay more of the cost.

'It seems to me that this report is written by the providers for the providers,' Ms Baker said. 'Working out ways in which they can get their hands on more money.'

But Mr Symondson said perceptions the sector is making huge profits are 'not true', and that the funding model has to change in order to keep providing 'quality' aged care to Australians.

When The Project's Waleed Aly asked Ms Baker if seniors should have to dip into their super to fund their aged care, she gave an impassioned response.

'Superannuation was designed to look after you when you age. We gave up tax cuts and salary increases to contribute to our super. It wasn't there to be milked by rapacious providers to ensure their profits are maintained,' she said.

'I have no problem, when I die, having absolutely nothing left in my super. I have a huge problem if not only have I nothing left in my super, but my savings, my home, has also disappeared down the gurgler into the pockets of providers.

'We need clarity on what is going to be means tested. How much are these providers going to be able to charge you for rent?'

Aly pushed her that the ever-increasing costs have to be met somehow, whether by taxation, levies or superannuation contributions.

'Waleed, what I worry about is that we're viewed as a cost,' she replied. 'I heard baby-boomers referred to as a "baby-boomer tsunami".

'I don't hear the millennials being called a tsunami, yet they out-number us. We have to stop this ageism stuff and see what we need and how we can fairly fund it.'


Ms Baker added that 'When Covid started it was called the "boomer remover". How insulting. This is a deliberate strategy. People believe baby-boomers are greedy and have hoarded everything and stolen everything.

'They don't understand we grew up on dirt roads, running around (in) bare feet. We changed the things and built, for everyone, the wealth this country shares.

'We're now still seen as a burden. I don't think that's a reasonable or fair statement but it is a very clever way of keeping us fighting with one another rather than looking to the real problem, the disparity and the unfair tax system that delivers carrots to the wealthy and sticks to the poor.'

The Project co-host Kate Langbroek was so impressed with Ms Barker's response she said 'There's the wisdom of elders right there. Amen.'