Age the French way

The 2003 heatwave in France caused the deaths of around 15,000 older people. Many were not missed and the authorities were accused of being too slow to react and hospitals too understaffed. However the knock on effect is that France has now put in place new issues affecting the elderly. The French are now reducing "dependence" which is described as the "loss of autonomy people experience either as a result of a disability or of old age". By bringing these groups together, France is hopnig to unite them with outside help. In 2005, France created a fifth national social security agency. This is dedicated to dependence and it distributes an extra €12.6bn (£11bn) to services to help the elderly rated as being in dependence. In addition, the country is expected to consider a bill next year for funding in the future to be a mixture of public support available to everyone. For those who can afford it, this will be supplemented with top-up private insurance.

Said Sylvain Denis, president of the National Federation of Pensioners' Societies (FNAR): "We are pushing for all the funding to come from national solidarity [public funding] by introducing a new payroll tax. We don't think private insurance is the solution. If you tell a 30-year-old 'you should take up private insurance to cover the care help you will need at 80,' he will ignore you. He will start thinking about it when he's 50 or 60, and by that time, insurance becomes very expensive."

  What's this?