People in long term care (LTC) homes should not pay more than £35,000 for care and between £7,000 and £10,000 a year for accommodation and food, the Dilnot Commission has recommended.
Speaking ahead of the publication of the Dilnot Commission's report, Andrew Dilnot, the commission's head, said currently people have to pay for their own care if they have assets worth more than £23,250.
The independent Dilnot report says the threshold should rise to £100,000 and suggests a £35,000 lifetime cap on costs.
The commission estimated a cost to the government of its recommendations at about £1.7bn a year, which Dilnot insisted was "affordable".
One of the main industry fears leading to the publication of the report has been that its findings would be unwelcome to the Government and ignored.
According to many of the main bodies in the LTC market, failure to act on the Dilnot Commission's recommendations "would be catastrophic".
A joint open letter, published last week, from the Association of British Insurers, the Society for Later Life Advisers, Age UK, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Counsel and Care, said: "We are reaching crisis point and the debate has gone on long enough."
"The current system is complicated, expensive and under-funded. It causes hardship and anxiety for those in need.
"Too often the long term care question has been placed on the too difficult pile. We all agree that continuing to do nothing is not the answer.
"It would be catastrophic if the forthcoming report from the Dilnot Commission on Funding of Care and Support resulted in no action at all."
Dilnot insisted that the government would not ignore his plans. "I have spoken with all the main players in this area," he said. "I do not think that's the position we are in."
A white paper is due out this subject next spring, but Dilnot said the government was unlikely to start funding the scheme before 2014.
