Making Sense of Differences — the Mixed Economy of Funding and Delivering Long-Term Care

Abstract

On average citizens of European Union (EU) countries that reach the age of 65 can expect to live for another 19.1 years and at the EU level this group of people represent 16.6 per cent of the population (Eurostat). This testifies to the current ageing profile of the European population. Although gains in life expectancy are a positive outcome in itself, not all of these years will be spent in good health or without physical limitations, which means that the need for care may arise at some point. Ageing could thus increase the demand for care, since at the population level old-age is usually associated with poorer health conditions. But as far as long-term care (LTC) systems are concerned, ageing could also reduce the availability of carers of working age. As a consequence, the pool of informal carers could be diminished, unless the reduction is compensated by informal care provided by older people, and in turn shrink the labour force available to work in the formal care sector.