|
Source: National Seniors Australia
Disability insurance scheme
Media release
1 March 2011
Seniors welcome proposed disability insurance scheme
National Seniors Australia supports the proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) released as part of the Productivity Commission’s draft report into disability care and support yesterday.
National Seniors chief executive Michael O’Neill said the NDIS was long overdue in a hugely underfunded sector.
“The NDIS has been likened to a Medicare type scheme where all Australians would get long term and lifetime support if they acquired a significant disability,’’ he said.
“National Seniors is pleased that the Productivity Commission has acknowledged the underfunding, and often unfair, fragmented and inefficient disability care sector that we have in Australia.”
O’Neill said the draft report was a good starting point, but many more questions needed to be answered.
“National Seniors believes the new scheme should be designed in such a way that it can be readily extended at some future date to include further categories of disabilities, including those resulting from the natural process of ageing,’’ he said.
“We are interested to know how these systems will interact and how they will interface with the health care system and the aged care systems.”
National Seniors Australia made a submission to the Productivity Commission’s draft report into disability care and support in September 2010.
Media: Casey-Ann Seaniger 07 3233 9135.
With a quarter of a million members Australia-wide, National Seniors Australia is the consumer lobby for the over 50s. It is the fourth largest organisation of its type in the world.
|
