The ill-informed market for residential aged care

This submission is made in response to a UTS StewartBrown discussion paper about proposed alternative models for allocating places.

People often choose to move long distances into aged care homes.  These moves may be to homes with better climate or services, or may reflect a desire to be closer to relatives.

For the 15 aged care planning regions with less than 1 person per sq km, distances moved were often high, and occupancy rates low.  For regions with higher population densities, distances moved gradually decreased, but probabilities of moving increased.

In choosing homes, persons have almost no data on the quality of care provided by a home, or on its financial stability.  Many aged care homes may be choosing not to admit financially unattractive residents.

These information deficiencies need to be fixed to ensure that provider payment and place allocation systems are fair to both consumers and providers.