Health & Science blog

NCS. Get used to it. If Labour wins the next election, there will, inevitably it appears be a National Care Service to sit alongside the NHS.

And amid all the sound and fury, the all heat and no light controversy that Labour and the Tories are generating between them over the future of social care funding, this is one of the worst bits.

For what does a National Care Service, particularly when put along side the NHS, imply? Well, a largely free at the point of use tax-funded service, of course. Which is what it will not be, whatever solution, if any, finally emerges. So the very definition of this new service contains an implied lie.

Labour may – foolishly in the eyes of many – be currently promoting free personal care at home for those with the highest needs. But the general taxpayer is not going to take on the entire £22bn current cost of social care, as the government itself admits in its green paper, ruling that option out.

The solution will involve either some form of matched funding, some sort of voluntary, possibly state-backed, insurance, or some sort of compulsory levy on those at or near retirement – which could be paid after death as an inheritance tax. That would provide free care (though not free accommodation) up to a point. But there will be a premium for it. Given that the Conservatives have ruled out a compulsory scheme, and given that any solution to be a lasting one needs at least some degree of cross-party support, it is clear that a National Care Service will not be the care equivalent of the NHS. Calling it by such a name will raise expectations that cannot possibly be met. Better to drop such a misleading moniker.