Mr Burstow believes the "opportunity is there... the plan is ready to go" to fix social care funding
The Treasury is to blame for a failure to reform care funding in England, a former Lib Dem minister has said.
Paul Burstow said the Treasury saw no need for change and was happy to "kick the can down the road".
Care groups have backed a proposal that the state cover elderly and disabled people's care costs over £35,000.
The government, which is continuing to look into cheaper options, said the Treasury had played a major part in getting care back onto the agenda.
When he was health secretary, Andrew Lansley said ministers supported the principle of a cap, proposed by the Dilnot Commission - but as yet there is no commitment to finding the money to pay for it.
The Dilnot package would cost the Treasury almost £2bn a year.
'Historic opportunity'The government is expected to include its plans on paying for the cost of care in the next spending review, to begin next year.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Burstow said it was not certain the government had the "political will" to grasp the "historic opportunity" to reform care and he feared that they would put it "back in the too difficult drawer".
"The coalition made a good start, setting up the Dilnot Commission within two months of taking office. But sustaining that pace has been tough," he said.
One of the reasons behind this was, he said, reluctance from the Treasury to back the reforms.
"The Treasury's view is simple, kick the can down the road despite our rising elderly population. No sense of urgency. No recognition that left unreformed there is no incentive for families to plan and prepare.
"In the view of mandarins there is no need for change, and certainly not yet. That has been the Treasury line every time a reform plan has popped its head above the parapet."
Sustainable financesMr Burstow, who was care services minister until the recent government reshuffle, said that in that post he had received more correspondence from MPs about care costs than any other topic.
"The good news is so far the Treasury has failed to smother the latest plan, a cap on lifetime care costs," he said.
"Ending the scandal of people forced to sell their homes to pay for care would be a legacy for this Government felt for generations.
"It would set the seal on a long overdue, comprehensive and genuinely popular reform of care and support in this country."
A coalition spokesman branded Mr Burstow's remarks as "rubbish".
"Unlike under the previous government, the Treasury has played a major part in getting Dilnot back onto the agenda, not least by working to ensure we have the sustainable public finances that are necessary if it is to be delivered."
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