Every so often I get very angry.
One way of talking about this is money.
Anna has been hit by an ILLNESS, called Alzheimers Disease. Her care costs are now approximately – in direct costs, as she needs someone with her at all times, able to cope with her sudden changes of mood, fearfulness, physical vulnerability, sensitivity to living in an unknowable world, and all the rest of the help she needs in daily living - £25,000 pa. She has to pay these costs, all of them, 100%.
99%. Anti-depressant drugs are free on the NHS. (Her anti-dementia drugs are not -not value for money, apparently.) And a wooden ramp to the front door, after an eight month wait, from social services. The rest she pays, full whack.
This will only change if she is assessed as eligible for NHS continuing care, for which dementia does not apparently fit the carefully constructed criteria.
Health care free at the point of delivery. Not for dementia, no way.