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Care insurance
護理保險
Forever young
前景光明
Nobody wants to insure themselves against the cost of end-of-life care
沒有人能保證他們不需要生命終期護理
GOOD news for cruise ships: the ranks of the over-65s grew by 1.4m over the past decade. But old age will not be kind to all of them. One in three will develop dementia, around one in six will end up in a nursing or care home and nearly half will need some form of care. Few will have laid plans to pay for it.
游輪迎來好消息啦：過去十年間65歲以上人群增加了140萬人次。但如此高齡的年紀卻并不會善待每一位老人。其中有1/3的人會患老年癡呆，1/6的老人會在護理之家或是在護理中心走完人生的最后一程，而且有近一半的老人需要各種形式的護理。但幾乎沒人會為護理制定支付計劃。
The average stay in a nursing home lasts 17 months and costs 57,000 (85,000) according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a think-tank. People with assets under 23,250 get most of their residential care paid for but everyone else is more-or-less on their own, with the unluckiest facing bills as high as 200,000. Ever-attuned to the plight of elderly voters, the government is moving to change that. Next year it will put a cap of 72,000 on the sum that a person will have to pay towards care, and will raise the means-testing threshold from 23,250 to 118,000.
據一智囊團——英國經濟和商業研究中心稱，在護理之家平均停留時間長達17個月，花費達57000歐元（合85000美金）。當不幸的面對高達20萬歐元的護理費用之時，資產總值不足23250歐元的人會免付家庭護理，但其他人或多或少都要自己支付了。曾面對過老齡選民的費用困境，所以政府正在努力做改變。明年，政府將出臺一項政策，沒人必須支付的護理費用總值最高為72000歐元，并且會將資產評估的閥值從23250歐元提升至118000歐元。
The government had hoped that this reform would not just soothe elderly nerves but also stimulate an insurance market for end-of-life care. Unfortunately, that is not happening.
政府希望此項改革能夠舒緩老年人的神經并且以生命終期護理來刺激保險市場。可惜，現實太過骨感。
Many people continue to assume, wrongly, that the NHS will pay, says Yvonne Braun from the Association of British Insurers. And most are overly optimistic about their health in old age, underestimating the risks and costs they will suffer. Joan Costa-Font, from the London School of Economics, adds that the idea of care insurance seems to conflict with social values. A kind of familial moral hazard kicks in, as people fear their children will no longer look after them if they are insured.
來自英國保險協會的伊馮布勞恩表示，與政府期望恰恰相反，有很多人仍在持續為本應NHS（英國國民健康保險制度）承擔的費用來買單。而且很大一部分人低估了他們將會承擔的風險和費用，所以他們對自己晚年健康表現的過度樂觀。來自倫敦經濟學院的 Joan Costa-Font補充道，護理保險這一說法似乎與社會價值觀存在沖突。隨著很多人擔憂若是他們投保之后他們的子女會將自己棄之不顧，一種類似家庭性的道德危機開始蔓延。
Care costs are so hard to predict that insurers tend to protect themselves with big premiums, making insurance unaffordable. The government's new cap, which was supposed to sort this out, comes with alarming caveats. It does not include the cost of bed and board, which makes up a large chunk of care home costs. It is also up to local authorities to determine which care counts towards the cap, meaning people may end up spending more after all. And the cap is higher than the 25,000-50,000 recommended to the government by Andrew Dilnot, an economist who reviewed the market.
護理費用的難以預測，也使得保險公司采取抬高保險費用來保護自己，而這些費用總是昂貴的難以承受。政府最新出臺的帶有強烈警示意味條例的上限要求，目的就是解決這一問題。保險費用并不包括食宿花費，而這正是護理中心花費的一大部分。同樣，地方當局決定那一項會觸及政府的上限，這意味著人們終將結束過度支付的境況。一位名為安德魯迪爾洛特的經濟學家，在重新審視過市場之后，向政府建議，上限要求高于25000歐元-50000歐元。
According to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, the real maximum of self-funded costs might be around 140,000. “Like the rest of the industry, we couldn't make it pay,” says Stephen Lowe from Age UK, a charity that also sells insurance.
據英國精算師協會表示，真實的自費費用最大值應該是在140000歐元左右。來自老年英國——英國老年人慈善機構—的史蒂芬洛表示，“像其他老年人福利一樣，我們本不用為此買單。”
If a care insurance market fails to materialise, alternatives will be available. Worried middle-aged folk might take out immediate-needs annuities, which give fixed care payouts for life in return for a lump sum. Some insurers are starting to offer a care element as part of their life-insurance policies. Zurich Insurance, one of Britain's largest insurers, looked into offering care-only insurance but found that people much prefer a guaranteed payout over the “risk” of not needing care and losing their premiums altogether. From next month it will offer a new policy that allows people to withdraw a portion of their life insurance, which normally only pays out at death, as soon as they need care.
若是一個護理保險市場無法成功立足，那么就會有其他的可供選擇。令人擔憂這些中年人很可能會拿出他們眼前急需的養老金，而這筆養老金的一大部分是要為他們一生中固定的保健支出來買單的。部分保險公司開始在他們的人壽保險政策中開辟出護理的部分。全英最大的保險公司之一的蘇黎世保險公司，曾致力于提供專門的護理保險，但其隨后發現，人們更傾向于無須護理保險和丟失保險金的“風險”保證費用。自下月起，該保險公司會運行新政策，一旦人們需要護理，允許他們撤回其人壽保險的一部分，這一部分通常是為死亡支付的費用。
From next month much will change for retirees, as the government drops the requirement to buy annuities with private pension pots. The government hopes that people will use the new flexibility to plan for their old age, including the possibility that their final years will be spent in a nursing home rather than on the Costa del Sol. But Richard Sadler from Zurich points out that most people do not even save enough for retirement—something they are fairly certain will happen and even look forward to. It is less likely they will save for long-term care, which they think and hope they will never need.
從下月開始，隨著政府降低對私人養老金年金的購買要求，針對退休人員的很多政策會有所變化。政府希望人們利用新政策的靈活性來為自己晚年做出計劃，包括在他們晚年可能要給一家護理中心付費而不是為西班牙的陽光海岸買單。但是來自蘇黎世保險公司的理查德薩德勒卻指出，有很多人甚至并未為退休攢足資金——只應付得了他們完全預料甚至期待的事情。對于那些他們認為并希望永不需要的長期護理費用來說，他們所能積攢的遠遠不夠。譯者：張娣 校對：石海霞
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