Health care Funding
We will all need some sort of care as we age.But do you expect the government to pay for it?
The current system works like this.
Your GP is in charge of looking after you in your own home.
As people need assistance he is responsible for bringing in district nurses, and hospital treatment.
Social services become involved if you need additional care. Help getting up, or getting dressed and put to bed. They will order equipment you might need at home. Special beds, lifting equipment etc.
If you have more than £26,000 you are expected to pay for sorting most of this care out yourself and paying for it. Ie someone to cook and clean assist you, dress and wash etc
This is all well and good if you have physical problems.
If your GP thinks you may have dementia, he will get you assesed, and so long as you are not at risk will be looked after at home.
However if you need nursing care, in a home, the same rules apply.
If you have assets above £26,000 you will be expected to fund your care, but the government will means test you to see if you are eligible for attendance allowance.
This payment along with your pension will go towards reducing your care bill.
In most cases it's up to you or your family to find a suitable home for your condition.
Hospital medical wards, the old Geriatric name for them being deemed unacceptable in today's bull Sh*t society, are at breaking point.
Having recently visited Lancaster hospital medical ward and spoken to staff, it's pretty glum.
The place is packed out with mainly dementia patients, many with no relatives who care about them, no money, and in various stages of distress and progression of the disease.
Mental patients also make up the numbers, while the few true medical patients that have had treatment try to recover in squalid conditions, with constant screaming, threats of violence and incontinence odours.
Yet through all this turmoil on this hospital ward, not a single Asian, or Black person resides here.
There are no nursing homes in the Lancaster area to take these people. The same all over the UK.
Social services are unable to find places, and if they did they would be in private homes where the cost would be far more than the government is willing to pay, while the patients have no money to make up the difference.
Government homes have all but closed under various administrations.
So the situation is, as it is.
Make no mistake, anyone who thinks the unemployed on benefits, in rental accommodation, and who have chosen to live for today rather than save, would not speak so cockily of spending all they had when they had it, if they could see what government funded care really looks like.
In real terms the pittance we pay into the health service during our life time covers virtually nothing, with home places costing from £750 per week.
All this is from first hand experience.
So my question is,
What do you expect from government care as you age.?
Do you expect, or is it right for the government to fund it, or is this too much Nanny State involvement.
Should everything go private.......
Or do you just not care because your too young to think about it!!!! Safely assume from various experience very few people do actually save for elderly care, in the vast majority of cases, their provision will be exhausted long before they pass over these days.
Its every man women and child for themselves, people voted for Austerity Health and Social Care Act 2012 the renewal of Trident etc. All short term plans but Democracy in action all the same. However, its good that we now have ageing population, as people now can finally follow directly and experience their political choices.data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 Quite agree. Before, most people had assets in the form of a house that they could use to pay for care. That is out of reach for many of the present generation. are you sure about that ... there are "Geriatric Medicine" signs at my local NHS Foundation Trust hospital (wards go by alphanumeric names as they always have - F6, B2 etc) At the JR the buzz word seems to be Geratology, so it may vary from Trust to Trust. Indeed.
Some hospitals have again started to call them Geriatric Medicine wards or Elderly Medicine wards.
Note the started again bit.
But not all.
Some still consider Geriatric as a derogatory term. It seems to be a play on words to satisfy the PC brigade. ^^^ no, it's real ...
geratology | Definition, meaning & more | Collins Dictionary At least those young PC people are changing the road signs.
https://www.avforums.com/attachments/upload_2016-9-23_15-43-40-png.763090/ The supply of resources for health and social care services will struggle to meet demand. Revenue from general taxation will diminish as a higher proportion of the population retire and pay less tax. By 2035, the number of people of pensionable age is projected to increase by 28 per cent, whereas the number of people of working age is only projected to increase by 16 per cent (figure 2). Furthermore the population aged 80 and over is projected to double (7).
Even the current health and social care delivery system, despite recent progress, has failed to keep pace with the needs of an ageing population, the changing burden of disease, and rising patient and public expectations (8).
Health and health services: the next 20 years
So anyone who called the boomers for clogging up the system, will have a huge shock when their time comes for care....unless there is war or assisted death is introduced.?