Long-term care policies in practice: A European perspective

This paper offers a comprehensive study of the long-term care (LTC) systems in Germany, France, Slovenia, Italy and Denmark. In many EU countries, the demand for LTC services already exceeds supply. Without major reforms, this 'care gap' is likely to widen further because of population ageing. This paper highlights a number of recent reforms to reduce this care gap by affecting the demand for and supply of long-term care services. We find that most measures to increase the supply of formal LTC services focus on workforce attractiveness. By examining recent policy efforts and reforms, we aim to understand in which direction LTC policy is going, and to showcase measures to prepare for the future increase in demand for care.