The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) today released his assessment of the cost for implementing House of Commons Motion-77, tabled by Mr. Paul Manly from the Green Party which proposes several changes to long-term care for seniors.
Changes proposed in Motion-77 include providing long-term care to all persons who need such care, requiring an average of four hours of care per resident per day, increasing spending on home care to 35% of public spending on long-term care and increasing average employee pay and benefits for private long-term care providers.
The PBO’s Cost Estimate for Motion 77: Improvements to Long-Term Care found that implementing these changes would require increasing public spending by $13.7 billion per year.
“We estimate that approximately 52,000 people are on wait lists for long-term care, including those in hospitals”, says Yves Giroux, PBO. “Meeting the needs would require a 26% increase in the number of long-term care beds in Canada at a cost of $3.1 billion.“
Motion 77 also includes an increase in average wages and benefits for persons providing long-term care in the private and non-for-profit sectors to $25/hour, which represents a 15% increase in hourly wages, at a cost of $1.1 billion.
In addition, this motion is intended to ensure that seniors in long-term care receive an average of at least four hours of direct care per day. According to Mr. Giroux, “This increase in the number of hours of care provided to residents in long-term care facilities would cost $4.3 billion per year.”
The final change proposed in Motion 77 would increase spending on home care to 35% of public spending on long-term care. To reach the motion’s target an additional $5.2 billion would have to be spent each year on home care.