"Personal care should be free for over-65s, says thinktank"

It will never happen.
Older people and their needs are disregarded in spite of the potential savings, and any increase in taxation is very unpopular and the party in power won't risk it.

Actually implementing 'free personal care' herein Scotland, which we are supposed to have, is a nightmare of waiting for weeks, sometimes months, to be assessed as needing it then a lottery as to finding providers. Talk is cheap. Actuality is something completely different. ?

I agree Jane10. I obviously don't know the situation in Scotland but can imagine how an idea like this would pan out. I don't have any answers.
Any form of insurance would only help the better paid sections of society and leave poor or vulnerable people out in the cold.

This should happen. Very many beds would be freed up for those in dire need. This problem has existed for years, 30 years to my knowledge and district nurses should be implemented to do the job, or trained retirees who are still fit as I'm sure many would be willing to fill in their time to carry on where they left off. Their funding wouldn't cost half of what it does to keep just one patient in hospital.
Paramedics treat many of their calls in the patient's home unless it's necessary for them to be admitted. A neighbour was attended to after a fall 2 days ago and made comfortable so to avoid going into hospital.

Local councils have plenty of money ( going by the top wages ) and could easily afford the funding for district nurses, most of who prefer to work " on the road " than in a hospital.
Assessments are made at the point of a patient's discharge from hospital and their needs could then be catered for by these " travelling nurses ". I don't see any problem.

Travelling nurses? There aren't enough nurses trained in the first place! Not everyone needs nurses either but recruiting, training, supporting and retaining good care staff is currently absolutely impossible. Massive funding implications all round.
Eg my nieghbour is stuck in hospital as he needs 2 staff per visit and 4 visits a day. That's a minimum of 16 hours at qualified staff hourly rate plus their travel time and on costs such as their training, national insurance and sick and holiday pay considerations. Add in cover for their days off and the costs are spiraling. Most likely cheaper to fund residential care.
Note- all this is only for his statutory number of visits. Outside this his poor 80+ year old wife has to cope or summon help. More costs.

EllenVannin The problem is we do not have enough trained staff to staff hospitals and doctors surgeries, let alone peripatetic, 'district nurses'

Top wages in Local Government are very carefully limited to a handful in each authority, reduce them by the cost of a District nurse each and you would get only 2 or 3 per authority max.

To what extent will District Nurses (do they still exist) want to keep working - even part time after retirement. The job is arduous and most will probably want work, if they want to work at all, that is indoors and in clinics.