The cost blowouts with the ndis aren’t just ramping up care. Due to the massive increase in funds available, demand increased significantly. So prices rose on lots of stuff. Those in allied therapies are charging hourly rates in the 100s of dollars, where previously, their hourly rate was 60-80. There is a private style system but public style demand. This is less efficient.

Think of going to a public hospital out patient, with lots of waiting and queuing, versus a therapist charging for an hour, having no admin support (why bother as it’s just a cost), so all admin (eg payments, booking appointments )are done during appointment time, billed to ndis. In a hospital, all that is passed off to admin workers while the therapists just see more patients, at a lower hourly rate. Then look at equipment, sometimes costing thousands. Hospitals have it as a shared resource. Private therapists have it now too, but it’s used less frequently and so less efficient from a cost point of view.

The whole point of the scheme is great, but we don’t suddenly have a whole bunch of extra qualified staff. So, to encourage staff, qualified or not, prices went up. Then you have people, who are desperate, willing to pay anything, and then suddenly having a blank cheque. This should normalise over time, partly from a,rhetorical forces, partly from trying to rein in spending, like this.

This is before you even consider inflation was over 25% combine over the last few years, with double the participants. Add on the inefficiancy of rapid ramp up. Look at employment in government and non government spending over the last 3 years. It’s concerning for the economy in general.