Help Wanted?
Providing and Paying for Long-Term Care

This book examines the challenges countries are facing with regard to providing and paying for long-term care. With populations ageing and the need for long-term care growing rapidly, this book looks at such issues as: future demographic trends, policies to support family carers, long-term care workers, financing arrangements, long-term care insurance, and getting better value for money in long-term care.
“WHO recognizes that long-term care represents a major challenge for all countries in the world, with important implications for economic development and for the health and well-being of older people. This well-documented book provides a comparative analysis of the common challenges and diverse solutions OECD countries are adopting to respond to the growing demand for long-term care services, and particularly its implications for financing and labour markets. It provides much needed evidence to guide policy makers and individuals.”
-Dr John Beard, Director, Department of Ageing and Life Course,
World Health Organization
“This carefully researched book offers invaluable data and insights into the organization and financing of long-term care in OECD countries. The book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in international long-term care”.
-Dr. Joshua M. Wiener, Distinguished Fellow and Program Director
of RTI’s Aging, Disability, and Long-Term Care Program, United States
Also available in: French
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Public Long-term Care Financing Arrangements in OECD Countries
With population ageing and reductions in family care, utilisation of formal long-term care for disabled people is growing in all high-income countries. Higher demand for formal services is emerging also because of people’s expectations for high-quality care. These factors are pushing up the cost of formal long-term care across OECD countries and raise questions about who should pay more prominent in policy discussions. This chapter offers an overview of public long-term care (LTC) coverage in OECD countries. For illustrative purposes, countries are clustered into three main groups, ranging from universal and comprehensive to means-tested system or systems with a mix. Over time, coverage systems are evolving towards universal systems or benefits and more user-choice models, with, in many cases, increased targeting of care benefits to those with the highest care needs.
Also available in: French
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Click to download PDF - 463.43KBPDF
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Click to Read online and shareREAD