Older people are likely to
undergo a means test and pay a significant out-of-pocket payment towards home
care under the first statutory scheme to be introduced here.
The public will be able to say
how much they can pay and what they want from a scheme which would guarantee a
minimum level of home care.
A report into the review by the
Health Research Board is being published by Minister for Older People Helen
McEntee today.
However, the report reveals how
statutory schemes, which support older people to live out their lives in their
own homes, are under growing pressure in other countries. They are having to
charge more for the service.
The analysis by the Health
Research Board comes in the wake of ongoing dissatisfaction with the lottery
faced by thousands of older people who cannot get a HSE home care package and
are ending up in nursing homes.
More than 5,200 elderly are on
waiting lists for a home care package, home help or some other form of support
to allow them remain their own homes.
Currently all HSE home care
packages are provided free, without a means test, after an older person's needs
are assessed.
But the demands for these
packages are growing as the population ages and many elderly are left
struggling.
Today's report, commissioned as a
first step in the process by the Department of Health, provides a stark insight
into the cost of statutory home care schemes in Scotland, Germany, the
Netherlands and Sweden.
The report reveals:
· People in
Germany and the Netherlands are paying compulsory long-term care insurance and
are also liable for means-adjusted co-payments.
· In
Scotland the threshold for access to professional home care has been raised and
only people with the highest level of needs are cared for.
· People
are given personal budgets to control costs.
The report said that the needs of
the older person, rather than ability to pay, is an underlying principle in all
countries and they have a formal system of assessing this.
However, "Scotland and
Sweden have a long standing rights-oriented home care services sector which is
increasingly rationed by stricter eligibility criteria."
Ireland will also have to foot
the bill for the regulation of home care services which currently are not
subject to any inspection for quality and safety.
The minister told the Irish
Independent: "My priority is to ensure that our older people get the best
care possible.
"For many that is long-term
nursing home care, but for others that care can be provided in their own homes,
surrounded by the people and communities that they love.
"Unfortunately, as a
country, the only statutory scheme we have in place at present to care for our
elderly is the Nursing Homes Support Scheme, 'a Fair Deal'. I am determined to
change this and to establish a new statutory homecare scheme.
"Homecare is an increasingly
important part of the supports we offer to older people.
"It is estimated that about
20pc of the over 65 population receive some form of community-based support
service annually from the State.
"The publication of the
findings of the review by the Health Research Board is an important step in the
process, currently underway in the Department of Health.
"Work is under way to
determine what type of home care scheme is best in relation to both regulation
and funding.
"I am committed to
progressing this, as a priority. The development of the scheme is complex. We
need to get it right."
SOURCE: Irish News, Eilish O’Regan
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