Long-term care (LTC) – the organised set of health, social and personal support services aimed at older people and persons with disabilities who are no longer able to live independently – has long been one of Europe’s most significant social and economic challenges. In recent years, European countries have therefore developed a range of policies to address it. Looking at the experience gained in this context can consequently provide useful insights for other countries, including those in Latin America, which are beginning to face similar challenges related to population ageing.
Against this background, an analysis of European mixed public-private financing models for elder care services was carried out, providing a benchmark of experiences that could be replicated in Latin American countries. The research examined how mixed financing of elder care services operates in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, with the aim of providing useful guidance for Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay, which participate in the Inclusive Societies Programme.
The report, “Analysis of European Mixed Public-Private Financing Models in Elder Care Services and Benchmarking of Replicable Experiences in Latin American Countries Implementing the Inclusive Societies Program,” examines the legal, regulatory and financial frameworks underpinning the provision of LTC services in the countries considered. It also presents 12 cases of public-private integration from the four European countries and provides 10 specific recommendations that could be adopted in Latin American countries.
The research shows that LTC can become a sector capable of attracting investment on a stable basis when governments build an infrastructure for investability – based on enforceable entitlements, multi-year contracts, validated tariffs, tax incentives and blended-finance mechanisms – capable of transforming social needs into predictable revenue streams. Where this infrastructure is lacking or incomplete, formal service coverage remains limited. The comparison also highlights three structural tensions shared, albeit to varying degrees, by all four contexts: the residual role of the public sector in the direct provision of formal services, the difficulty of creating genuinely sustainable conditions for investment, and the still partial recognition of care work, both informal and professional.
Commissioned by IILA (the Italo-Latin American International Organization) and Expertise France, the research was conducted by Celestina Valeria De Tommaso, Alessia Borromeo and Franca Maino from the Percorsi di Secondo Welfare research laboratory (University of Milan), together with Alexander Chaverri-Carvajal from the Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona).
Full report and the Executive Summary are available for download. Both documents are in English.
| This text was prepared with the support of artificial intelligence and subsequently reviewed and edited by the editorial team of Percorsi di Secondo Welfare. |