Originally Posted by
justakiwi
This is a very legitimate concern, but reinforces what I have said about the "care" side of things. These people (I am one of them) will never be in the market for a villa or an apartment, probably not even a care suite. Financially, our only option will be a standard, government subsidised care bed. No frills accommodation but in most cases, still with excellent care and support provided. Whichever government is in power in the future, they will have no choice but to adequately fund these beds. They cannot provide this standard care themselves so rely fully on aged care providers to do so. Providers will happily meet that need, but cannot be expected to do it with insufficient government funding, as they are right now.
Private providers are better equipped to provide this care, than the smaller NGO's/NFP organisations are. OCA in particular is in a prime position to take advantage of this, and I believe they have far better insight into the potential future needs for "care" (at all levels) than the rest do. Yes, they are now focussing more on care suites (with associated "add ons") than they are standard care beds, but once funding levels increase, standard beds will become an added source of revenue and the market for them will increase over the long term, given that many Kiwis will now never be in a position to buy a house.