Paul Burstow, the UK health minister, urged the public to accept "the nasty truth" that all but the poorest will have to pay for their own care. The issue involves who is to pay for residential care for the elderly / disabled. Burstow warned that care for the elderly would "never" be free, describing the idea of a fully state-funded system as "a fantasy". "It is not free. It never has been and it never, ever will be free," he said. "That the boat has sailed on a wholly tax-funded social care system." Under the expected plan to cap the costs, individuals could take out new insurance schemes to protect themselves, or be given incentives to save through their pensions, or downsize to a smaller home to fund their share of the bill.
As dear Rudyard Kipling once wrote,
"And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all." |
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