Recent trends in the provision and financing of long-term community care in OECD countries, and policy implications, CARER+ Final Conference: Smart Homecare, 27 March 2015, Paris
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Long-term Community Care in OECD Countries - Francesca Colombo, Head of Health Division (OECD)
1. LONG-TERM
COMMUNITY CARE IN
OECD COUNTRIES
Recent trends in the provision and financing of long-term
community care in OECD countries, and policy implications
Francesca Colombo, Head of Health Division (OECD)
2. There is huge variation in what
countries currently spend on LTC
3. Mixed systems
There are a range of different funding
systems for meeting these costs
Comprehensive, universal, tax-funded systems
Means-tested safety net system
Universal LTC insurance - more comprehensive
- larger copayments
Nordic countries
Netherlands, Japan
Germany, Korea
England, United States
More comprehensive
Wider access
More expensive
Multiple universal
systems
Italy, Czech Republic
Income-related
universal benefits
France, Ireland, Austria
Mix of universal and
means-tested benefits
Switzerland, Spain
4. Most OECD countries place a high
priority on promoting community care
Source: Help Wanted? (OECD, 2011)
5. Efforts to promote community care have
been successful
Proportion of LTC users living in the community
Source: OECD health statistics 2014
6. Although most spending is still on
residential care
Expenditure on long-term care by setting (% of GDP)
7. Community care implies a large role for
informal carers
Estimated value of formal and informal services for people with dementia in England
Source: Prince, Knapp et al. (2014)
8. Promoting community care must be
coupled with policies to support carers
Help with employment
• Germany: “family caring time”
law helps carers reduce hours
temporarily
• Canada: bringing together
employers to explore how to help
carers to keep working
Information and training
• Provide skills to care effectively and
minimise negative impacts
• e.g. France: carers entitled to two
days of training per year.
• Phone advice services in a number
of countries
Counselling and support
• Can be effective at relieving stress
• Include peer support, e.g.
• dementia cafés in Japan
• NHS Dementia Carers’ Support
Service in England
Respite care
• At home, day care centres or
temporary institutional care
• Available but underused?
• Netherlands: day care on farms
provides respite to carers
9. There are also important considerations
around gender equality
Source: Help Wanted? (OECD, 2011)
The likelihood of a person aged 50-64 being an informal carer, by gender
10. Thank you
Contact: francesca.colombo@oecd.org
Read more about our work Follow us on Twitter: @OECD_Social
Websites: www.oecd.org/els ;
www.oecd.org/health/dementia.htm
www.oecd.org/health/long-term-care.htm
Notes de l'éditeur
Some of the differences will be filled by higher out of pocket spending in some countries
But some people may also be going without LTC due to less generous coverage
This is how we categorised LTC payment systems in our 2011 report Help Wanted
Categorisation is only approximate – and the implied ranking of generosity even more so
In general, all systems require some sort of user copayment, although this might be means-tested or covered by separate social assistance systems
But the size of these copayments varies dramatically between countries
There is no such thing as a universal, free at the point of use LTC system like we see in some countries for health
Although systems vary, there is broad agreement on r
Most people are in home care, but most spending is on residential care
This is because:
People in residential care generally have higher needs
Informal carers play a major role in home care, which reduces monetary costs
NB: this only includes health LTC, so numbers don’t always match earlier chart
Community care is often seen as cheaper
That is often true as far as government budgets are concerned
But in terms of resources it is more expensive
It is just that much of the cost is non-monetary and borne by families and carers
Is it fair or desirable to leave them to manage these costs alone?
Carers are 20% more likely to have mental health problems than other people
Fewer carers are in employment, and more of them who are in employment work part time
Support is needed to mitigate these effects and make caring arrangements sustainable
Many countries also have cash benefits, but these vary in generosity:
Nordic countries effectively pay a full wage to some informal carers (although this benefit is tightly controlled to avoid abuse/fraud)
Germany: care recipient can take cash instead of services to pay a carer – but this is less than the cost of the services
UK: carers’ allowance £61.35 a week for people caring for more than 35 hours = £1.75 per hour (vs. £6.50 minimum wage)
More than a third of informal carers are caring for a parent
Many of these will be of working age
And data shows that working age carers are much more likely to be women
Since caring reduces employment possibilities, this raises questions about gender equality in the workforce
Countries need to consider this when designing policies to promote community care and support informal carers