And yes, it's similar to the outrageous healthcare costs in the US that Americans already are paying whenever they get sick. For some reason, the Tories want to implement more of the US-style healthcare, which has been a colossal failure and the most expensive system in the world. What are they thinking?:
Elderly people could be forced to pay up to £100,000 [$155,000] towards the cost of their care before the state begins picking up the bill, the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, suggested yesterday.Whether in the UK or even here in France, I'm always amazed when people complain about their systems being inefficient or expensive or not that great. The dysfunctional US healthcare system that will start to change somewhat with Obamacare is by far the most expensive system in the world and it's been a nightmare to navigate. There's a reason why the US system is ranked #37 in the WHO rankings and the other systems are much higher.
The figure is nearly three times the £35,000 [$54,000] cap suggested by Andrew Dilnot, the author of an independent report into care funding. While the economist proposed a universal scheme that would cover the care fees of all pensioners, Mr Lansley indicated he was also considering the possibility of a voluntary scheme that would cap only the contributions of those who had paid for some form of insurance.
Pensioners moving into residential care homes would be able to borrow money from their local authorities, meaning that their homes would not have to be sold to meet costs until after they had died.
Anyone who thinks moving towards more privatization and borrowing elements of the US system needs their head examined. It's a system exclusively by the rich, for the rich. It should have been gutted and thrown into a garbage dump rather than mildly reformed.
