End unfair split between NHS and council care, review says

[chenrezig]

End unfair split between NHS and council care, review says

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29047190

The NHS and social-care systems in England should be merged in the most radical overhaul since the 1940s, an independent review says.

Currently the NHS is free at the point of need, while payment for care homes and home support is means-tested.

But the Barker Commission said the distinction was unfair and must end.

It said the cost of providing free social care could come from a mix of new taxes and cuts to benefits and prescription exemptions.

This could include ending the National Insurance exemption for those working past the state retirement age, the expert panel led by economist Dame Kate Barker suggested.

Increasing National Insurance contributions for those earning more than £42,000 a year by 1% and for those above the age of 40 by the same amount was also suggested.

Winter fuel payments, free TV licences and prescription exemptions given to older people could be curbed, the review also said.

It said the merger of the two systems - created in 1948 as part of a post-war welfare settlement - was needed because the ageing population and rise in long-term illnesses had blurred the lines between the two and was now causing "distress and unfairness".

The commission, which was set up by the King's Fund think tank, compared the care given to cancer patients, who get their treatment free, with the support needed to help people with dementia, which often falls into the means-tested social-care system.

Dame Kate said the country was facing "difficult questions" but added the current system was simply "not fit to provide the kind of care we need and want".

"We propose radical change, greater than any since 1948, that would bring immense benefit to people who fall between the cracks between means-tested social care and a free NHS," she said. .............

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