Tobacco industry knowingly duped public with "low tar" brands

the Institute for Public Policy Research recommends that personal care should be free, on the basis of equity and social justice.It says the inherited system is "flawed," and that the boundary between whether the state or the individual has to pay for care has become "arbitrary, often inconsistent, and difficult for people to understand."The policy has generated strong resentment, the report says, as it means that an elderly person in hospital has all costs paid while someone ill in a residential home must pay for personal care."The funding distinction between acute health care and long-term health care, and thus the difference in consequences for the individual of developing cancer or heart disease versus Alzheimer's or motor neurone disease is still starkly inequitable," the report argues.Although free personal care would be expensive, this should not drive the government's decision, the institute urges.It estimates that the cost of state funding would be around 0.3% of GDP by 2050, depending on demand and demographic changes.