Call for 'radical overhaul' of funding of long-term care in the UK

In a workshop titled ‘Who cares?’ Reforming long-term care, University of Birmingham Health Services Management Centre co-director Jon Glasby said the current system placed an unfair burden on individuals.

Professor Glasby said alternative methods of funding long-term care that needed to be discussed included:

• introducing compulsory long-term care insurance;
• abolishing long-term care fees;
• drawing on value of homes through equity release.

Professor Glasby said he hoped the government’s Green Paper on care and support, due this year, would provide an opportunity to stimulate debate on the issue and lead to an overhaul of the system.

He said: “There is the risk that we retain the status quo, with a few tweaks, but I believe the existing system needs a radical overhaul to fund long-term care for older people. It is a fundamental personal and political issue that is at stake and we really need to think and talk about where we may go next.”

“I personally think that it does not make sense that we distinguish between people who are ‘sick’ and those who are ‘frail’ or ‘disabled’. One service is free and the other is means-tested, which has significant implications for who pays and who provides. It does not make sense that someone who has cancer and is being treated in a hospital pays nothing, while someone who is in a care home and being treated in a similar way for Alzheimer’s is charged for their care. It is not meaningful to have a separate system of health and social care.”

Professor Glasby said that he did not agree with the argument that the government cannot afford to fund long-term care.

He said: “Some people might say that we cannot afford to fund long-term care, but anything is affordable if we choose to pay for it. If enough of us decided that it was important enough, it could be done.”

The conference for Health and Care insurance actuaries is at the Hilton Glasgow between 13 and 15 May.

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Enquiries: Tel. Fleur Morrison on 020 7632 1453 or email fleur.morrison@actuaries.org.uk

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