Mr Wanless previously wrote a report for Gordon Brown which helped the Chancellor justify a massive increase in spending on the NHS. But Mr Brown has also greatly increased means-testing - precisely what Mr Wanless is now implicitly criticising.

I was telephoned by Radio 2 this morning and asked my views on means-testing. I said I was against it because it discouraged work and saving. Pity, said the researcher. We have already got Niall Dixon of the King's Fund to oppose means-testing. We are looking for someone who is in favour of it. I don't envy her searching for such a person. Mr Brown is the greatest proponent of the idea (having been very much against it prior to being in government). Unfortunately Mr Brown will not be making himself available for debate on the issue.

One of the difficulties of the Wanless plan, from what I have seen of it so far, is that it involves co-payments between individuals and government. Having experienced for myself the bureaucratic nightmare of trying to get state help for the care of an elderly person, I fear that organising such co-payments would be the mother of all bureaucratic hells.

One alternative would be for people to take out insurance with one of a wide range of private companies, mutual societies, trade unions and so on. In an ideal world this would be voluntary. Given the realities of British democracy, it would probably have to be compulsory for any politician to get it through.

BBC News story on the subject here.

The King's Fund report and supporting material here.