Islanders with family members in public long-term care facilities are getting a much needed break from scheduled rate increases.
How long this break lasts and what happens in the future are still open questions.
The previous Liberal government planned to phase in rate increases to $102.73 per day by October 2020.
But now, the PC government has cancelled that scheduled rate increase in place of a flat rate of $92.19 per day. For some, this starts now, or by April 2020 for residents who have lived in public care homes since before Feb. 1, 2019. This affects roughly 600 Island seniors in public manors, whether they have their rate subsidized or not.
In January, Island resident Ron MacNeill brought concerns over rate increases to light. His father, a resident at Beach Grove Home, was scheduled to have his daily rate increase from $77.60 to $102.73, or 32 per cent, by April 1, 2019. Like many in this situation, MacNeill was caught off guard by the drastic rate increase and had little time to plan.
After backlash from the public, the plan was changed to the phased-in version of $102.73 per day by October 2020.
The Guardian obtained internal documents in June that indicated the actual goal was to raise the rate to $113 per day by 2021. But as a government communications staffer at Health P.E.I. admitted in an email, changing the message from $102 per day to $113 would have been confusing and open up the government to more criticism. She wasn’t kidding.
So, here we are with a revised plan and a flat rate. But is it any better? Let’s recall that the Liberals original plan was to phase in increases to $102.73 by October 2020. As it stands now, all we know is that on April 1, 2020, the rate will be $92.19. We don’t know what happens after that. And, with the admission in Friday’s press release that any further increases to public rates are going to be comparable to private rates, Islanders might be seeing those $102.73 or $113 rates after all, or higher.
Just when the issue starts getting clearer, it gets cloudy again. And, while cancelling the scheduled rate increase in the short term is a good thing, it also raises questions about what the plan is to cover increased costs and how this will affect staffing and services, if at all. The money has to come from somewhere, and if not from rate increases, then where?
What we have then is potentially a short-term, band-aid solution. And, while the break is nice, Islanders with family members in public care homes are still lacking the clear, long-term answers they’ve been looking for to budget and plan for the future.
