Despite fresh demands for free long term care for the elderly, the Government is unlikely to review its strategy
The main priority of the NHS should be to provide free long term care (LTC) for the elderly, according to the overwhelming results of a national poll conducted by the BBC.
Although more calls are being made for the Government to fund personal as well as nursing care for the elderly, fundraising mechanisms suggested for paying for LTC clash with those already earmarked by the Government to feed into the rest of the cash-starved NHS.
According to the BBC, over 73,000 people voted for free LTC, compared, for example, with just over 15,000 who voted for an improved accident and emergency (A&E) service, just under 2,000 who voted for more cancer screening and just over 500 who voted for more medical research.
The poll, conducted as part of the BBC's day of programmes dedicated to the NHS, indicated that funding LTC is a prime concern for people in the UK.
Speaking on the programme, Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected the idea of providing free personal as well as nursing care for the elderly, saying that around 130,000 people would benefit from the Government's pay-out of £1bn over the next three years.
Blair claimed this money would be used to help the elderly stay independent in their own homes, rather than being forced to go into care.
Free LTC to those who need it and a move away from current means-testing methodology, is one of the Government re-thinks that independent think-tank, the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), is pushing in its latest report.
The report, A New Contract for Retirement, revisits the Royal Commission's analysis on long term care saying that nursing and personal care should be provided free on the basis of need.
It suggests the Government should meet the extra costs by abolishing equity-based Isas, reducing the value of age-related allowances, and aligning the upper limit on National Insurance contributions to the higher rate of income tax. The report says these steps would generate more than enough revenue to pay for the introduction of free personal care.
Sue Regan, spokesperson for the IPPR, said: 'Although we are supportive of the Government's aims and its primary focus on tackling pensioner poverty, we part company on how best to achieve those aims. We have consulted a range of organisations throughout our research and have received widespread support both for our analysis and for our view that the Government's current strategy needs to change.'
The report was welcomed by lobby groups for the elderly.
Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said: 'The IPPR is right to address the issue about long term care. Age Concern believes nursing and personal care should be free for all older people. We continue to call on the Government to act on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on long term care.'
Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public services trade union UNISON, said: 'This report is an important contribution to the debate about long term care. We welcome the proposal to provide free personal care to the elderly.'
Flawed thinking
However, Sandy Johnstone, retirement and protection strategy manager at Norwich Union, said the IPPR's fundraising recommendations were already earmarked by the Government for funding the NHS as a whole and doubted the report would affect the Government's decision on LTC policy.
'The arguments put forward by the IPPR are the same as those that were proposed by the Royal Commission ' and not many new issues have been raised. The Government spent a lot of time looking at the Royal Commission's recommendations and concluded that it wanted to take a different route and provide free nursing care, but not free personal care. The Government has made the decision that free personal care in England and Wales will not be forthcoming ' I do not think this report will change this,' he said.
Johnstone added that the role of LTC insurance as a safety net against costs, would remain.
'The means by which the IPPR is suggesting free personal care should be funded are the same as those proposed by the Government to raise extra funds for the NHS as a whole ' it cannot use the same fundraising mechanism twice.
'The report is an interesting piece, but I do not think it will make any significant difference to the Government's stance. People remain in a situation where they will still have to pay a high proportion of their long term care costs, meaning long term care insurance can provide an effective solution,' he said.
Brian Fisher, long term care marketing manager at AXA, said it was unlikely the Government would be able to meet all LTC costs as it was impossible to work out how much it would amount to in the first place.
'You can only spend money once and deciding where this money should go is not a task that can be envied. In my view, the IPPR's report was a little simplistic as it fails to take into account the five million relatives currently providing free care. The report assumes these people will continue to work for nothing. That is where the difficulty lies ' the real cost of long term care is still unknown,' he said.
