Ensuring long-term care (LTC) is one of the most urgent problems in health care today. Demographic trends are expected to lead to a higher proportion of old and very old people in the global population. As a result, an increased proportion of global income will be devoted to LTC services. With this in mind, Long-term Care: Economic Issues and Policy Solutions aims to address the following important objectives: to provide a detailed analysis of the arrangements and institutions designed to protect the disabled and dependent elderly people in various countries, and to try to evaluate their respective merits.
to discuss the projections of future costs of protection for dependent elderly, and to assess the impact of improvements in disability-free life expectancy on the future cost of care and choices between informal and formal care.
to present empirical research on these decisions, with special consideration of primary caregivers, and on the substitution between in kind and cash benefits as well as between institutional (or formal) care and home (or informal) care.
to analyze different theoretical approaches in modeling decisions referring to LTC services to be provided both within and between generations.


With its mix of empirical, theoretical and policy-related contributions, Long-term Care: Economic Issues and Policy Solutions will be of interest not only to health economists, but also to social scientists, health insurers, and public policy advocates.

One: International Comparisons.- 1. An International Comparison of Trends in Disability-Free Life Expectancy.- 2. Possibilities and Problems in a Cross-Country Comparative Analysis of Long-Term Care Systems.- Two: Empirical Research into the Demand and Provision of Long-Term Care Services.- >3. Effects of Strategic Behavior and Public Subsidies on Families' Savings and Long-Term Care Decisions.- >4. Women's Role in the Provision of Long-Term Care, Financial Incentives, and the Future Financing of Long-Term Care.- 5. Determinants of Institutionalization in Old Age.- 6. The Impact of the Community Long-Term Care Insurance Law on Services for the Elderly in Israel.- 7. The Effect of Public Provision of Home Care on Living and Care Arrangements: Evidence from the Channeling Experiment.- Three: Germany - A Model for Dealing with the Problems of Long-Term Care?.- 8. Social Protection for Dependence in Old Age: The Case of Germany.- 9. Determining the Long-Term Care Needs of Individuals Living in Private Households: Results from a Survey.- 10. The Long-Term Costs of Public Long-Term Care Insurance in Germany. Some Guesstimates.- Four: Theoretical Issues and Policy Recommendations.- 11. Long-Term Care Insurance and Trust Saving in a Two-Generation Model.- 12. Long-Term Care - An Inter- and Intragenerational Decision Model.- 13. The Assessment and the Regulation of Quality in Long-Term Care.- 14. Almost Optimal Social Insurance for Long-Term Care.