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  3. 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 deve

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 deve

admin2015-07-13  22
问题     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(痴呆), around one in six will end up in a nursing or care home and nearly half will need some forms of care. Few will have laid plans to pay for it.
    Knowing the dilemma of elderly voters, the government is moving to change that. Next year it will put & 72,000 on the sum that a person will have to pay towards care, and will raise the means-testing threshold(阀值)from ￡ 23,250 to ￡ 118,000.
    The government had hoped that this reform would not just relieve elderly nerves but also stimulate an insurance market for end-of-life care. Unfortunately, that is not happening.
    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(低估)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.
    Care costs are so hard to predict that insurers tend to protect themselves with big insurance expenses, making insurance difficult to afford. The government’s new policy, which was supposed to sort this out, comes with alarming warnings. It does not include the cost of bed and board, which makes up a large amount of care home costs. It is also up to local authorities to determine which care counts towards the policy, meaning people may end up spending more after all. And the policy is higher than the ￡25,000-50,000 recommended to the government by Andrew Dilnot, an economist who reviewed the market.
    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.
What is the government’s objective in the reform?
选项 A、To help make plans to pay for care.
B、To ease elderly worries and promote the insurance market.
C、To seek votes from elderly voters.
D、To reduce the costs in a nursing home.
答案B
解析 事实细节题。本题考查政府改革的目的：由定位句可知，政府希望此项改革能够舒缓老年人的神经，还能刺激生命终期护理的保险市场。B)是对本句的同义转述，故为答案。 A)“帮助制定护理支付计划”是利用原文第一段末句设置的干扰项，原文说“几乎没人会为护理制定支付计划”只是陈述事实，而非政府改革的目的，故排除；C)“为了拉老龄选民的选票”是利用第二段首句没置的干扰项，原文提及，了解到老龄选民的困境后，政府正在努力改变，可见这是政府改革的原因，而非目的，故排除；D)“为了降低护理之家的费用”，原文未提及，故排除。
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