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With the first wave of baby boomers about to turn 65, the question of who should be asked to pay for that care could not be more timely. As Dame Joan, 77, points out, amid talk from successive governments about tackling the problem, the old keep on getting older.
She says:
We talk about it quite a lot, we older people, when we get together.
Once we've checked out our latest ailments, the inadequacies of doctors, the car parking at the hospital and our dislike of being called by our first names we get round to the real concerns - how will we end our days?
When I was the government-appointed Voice of Older People I received letters asking me just that, help with putting an end to a miserable life.
One correspondent even wrote cheerily that he had it all sorted. His plan was a good bottle of whisky, a cache of pills and a recording of Mozart's Requiem.
Most older people worry what will happen when they get frail - and we will all get there at some point, so this is an issue for everyone.
Nearly 70% of men and some 85% of women over the age of 65 will be needing care at some time.
It is just that some of us are nearer that destination than others.
The independent commission on the funding of care set up last week by the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is expected to report within a year.
That is not a moment too soon for older people, their needs are immediate and pressing.
The fact is you can be frail without being ill. And that is a significant distinction.
Illness means we are entitled to be treated, free of charge, under the National Health Service.
But frailty - the need for help with washing, dressing and the intimacies of our personal hygiene is not paid for by the state.
This surprises many people - and makes some of them very cross indeed.
You hear them say: "I've worked hard, paid my taxes all my life, surely I am entitled to free care in my old age."
The answer - however regrettable - is no you are probably not. Only the very poor are entitled.
So what are the options? How shall we pay for those last years of dependency and weakness?
I have been out around the country seeking details of the different solutions.
I travelled to Dorset, the county that has the highest proportion of old people in the country, to Somerset where I met a woman who is selling the family home to pay for residential care for her mother.
On a brighter note, I visited Birmingham to see how ambitious schemes for new retirement villages are offering a cheery environment and 24 hour care for its residents.
I discovered two important things - there are many different ways of growing old and those that are the most successful need some forethought and planning.
I also found that there are old people up and down the country facing their older years with confidence and optimism. It is not, thankfully, all doom and gloom.
That said, for some people, such as Cathy Morgan, the gloom is very real. Cathy's mother, Marian Croucher has encroaching dementia, which meant she was judged to need residential care.
Cathy had already left her rented home in London and moved into the family home to care for her, but is now faced with selling up to pay for the kind of care Cathy wanted for her mother.
The move could render Cathy herself, together with her husband and son, without a home to call their own.
Such a case epitomises the worst fears we all have that we shall be overtaken by such compelling - and expensive - needs.
Many people balk at the idea of having to sell their homes, and they do have our sympathy.
But on the other hand it is hard to expect to burden the taxpayer with paying for that care when those same people are sitting on considerable assets, which can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds thanks to this country's property market boom.
It is a contentious issue.
At the other extreme from Marion Croucher was the happy case of Chris and Olive Quinn.
They have sold up their home in Edgebaston and moved into the newly opened New Oscott Village, a Birmingham City Council-backed enterprise run by the Extracare Charitable Trust.
The village offers some 260 retirement flats and has been deluged with some 2000 enquiries from prospective seniors looking to move in.
It is easy to see why - the on-site gym, restaurant, shops, and bar, as well as 24-hour medical care.
Olive and Chris are as happy as larks. Olive, who has arthritis, is already planning an exercise regime that will get her back on her feet.
Their cheeriness, enthusiasm and genuine affection for their life together and their new home remind us that old age can be a golden time. Would it were so for more of us.
All the experts I have met - from the King's Fund health care think tank to Age UK to the people running Dorset County Council - agree the matter is of the utmost urgency.
I am also of the view that the sense of urgency has been fudged in recent years with rival pre-election claims and counter claims from different political directions. All the while, the old are getting older.
Mr Lansley's newly-announced commission lays the field wide open to consider ways of paying for care that could be compulsory or optional.
Someone will have to decide soon.