Demographers have long been warning of the coming “care tsunami.” As the baby boomers age, a tidal wave of older Australians will reshape our population and the social contract underpinning how we share resources and fund services. The first waves are already breaking. Demand for care is rising faster than our capacity to deliver it, and the gap between what older Australians need and want and what the current system can provide is widening.

This imbalance is delaying access to both residential and home care, leaving hundreds of thousands of older Australians and their families in distress. The public hospital systems are struggling as the only alternative venue for care, and older people are waiting in hospital unnecessarily for up to months for a permanent place of care.

Against this b

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