There is a new nursing home

opening not far from here. An acquaintance of mine had the details because her mother is currently in hospital and will  be going into the nursing home for some "respite care". She will not in fact being going home again - but she will not be staying in that nursing home either.
Oh yes, her daughter would be very happy to have her mother in that nursing home  but....the bond is $850,000 up front.
    "We don't have that sort of money."
I wonder how many do have that sort of money. There won't be many. We certainly couldn't afford it. 
On top of that of course there are the fees for staying there. While this woman is there on respite the fees are reasonable enough. Her daughter, the only child, will be able to find the money although it won't be easy. After that there are all sorts of problems.
A lot of those problems come about because this woman gets part of her late husband's superannuation. She doesn't get the pension. 
I won't go into the complex financial details but people like her and people like the Senior Cat (who has superannuation but no pension) can be in serious difficulties  because of the way the system works.
There is another problem the Senior Cat is unaware of and which we have no intention of telling him. If he needs to go into a nursing home at any point then the house must be sold. I can't go on living here. I should be able to do that at least while he is alive but the system works in such a way that I won't be able to do that. 
I should be able to get what is called a "carer's allowance" - a small amount of money the government provides for people who care for a disabled or frail aged person at home. I can't get that because of the Senior Cat's superannuation. His superannuation payments are  under a government scheme. They stop the day he dies. He can't do what many people have done and reduce his assets in order to get even a tiny part-pension. As many people I know have said to me, "It's not getting the pension. It's getting the perks which go with it."
They have actually spent money in order to be better off.
It's an odd system and one which is inherently unfair but it is unlikely to change because it saves the government money. 
Now my acquaintance has the time her mother is in respite to find a place in another nursing home, a place where the bond will still be perhaps $500,000. Her mother could die in six weeks, six months or six years. There is no way of knowing that. Her mother is barely mobile and is now in a moderate stage of dementia. She will, from my own observations, soon be unable to care for herself at all and her daughter cannot physically handle someone her mother's size or with her mother's needs. 
     "Someone has to die so there is a place for Mum. I hate wishing that," her daughter told me.
I'd hate wishing that for the Senior Cat too. He would hate being in a nursing home, perhaps having to share a room. 
Why do we treat the elderly in such an appalling fashion? Yes, it is time for that Royal Commission into aged care.