Long term care insurance has been talked about for a number of years now, but is the government truly considering a mandatory insurance for all adults to cover his or her long term care.
A recent report in The Telegraph stated that it has been agreed that providing personal elderly care for all in need is not feasible given the cost. As such one of the options being considered is a compulsory insurance plan, forcing individuals to take out private insurance which is a lower cost alternative for the government.
A compulsory insurance is not unheard of, with the likes of Japan and France the private sector play a substantial role helping to lower the burden of care for the elderly. The Telegraph says the govenment has held extensive talks on the possibilities for implementation with the insurance industry playing a vital role although no developments have been made.
There are very few UK insurers offering long term care insurance although there has been talk of more insurers entering the market but none have done so yet.
With ever improving medicines and an aging population these issues are not going to go away, but is a compulsory insurance the answer?
Social and health workers agree that people live longer and better if cared for in their own home, and the trend is for home care not care in homes. Care homes vary considerably, like with many things it is a case of you get what you pay for, some are exceptional but are very expensive while the lower cost care homes can be quite unpleasant.
If separate insurance is necessary, should it be compulsory? What if individuals have other provisions to cover the cost of care, property, investements, should they still be required to join a compulsory scheme? How can we generate interest in such provision, one way would be for the government to introduce a tax break but we have seen this in the past with health insurance.
However we all know the success of the health insurance tax break for pensioners, it proved so popular it proved costly for the government and was withdrawn. It is important for us to look at the successes and the niggles other countries have had in their long term care plans and learn from the victories and mistakes. Similar to pensions this is another area which has to be engrained in generations to come to ensure we all make provisions for years to come.
Many individuals already make provisions to protect themselves against long term illness or injury in income protection insurance but can such cover be extended into old age, we will see?
More information can be found at the Department of Health or in the Health Service Ombudsman report on NHS funding for long term care.
