Notes About Comparing Long-term Care Expenditures Across Countries; Comment on “Financing Long-term Care: Lessons From Japan”

Abstract

The comparison of long-term care (LTC) expenditures is a difficult task. National LTC systems differ widely in terms of eligibility criteria, level of benefits, institutional variety and regional heterogeneity. In this commentary I will first give some general remarks on cross country comparisons. Then I discuss the role of the informal sector which is the most important pillar of all LTC systems. I conclude with some background on current developments in Germany. Different from Japan Germany is extending its LTC insurance instead of containing costs.

Keywords

• long-term care
• social insurance
• international comparison
• public expenditures