As part of a series of articles on long-term care spending in the United States of America, the New York Times recently published an article about the ‘Long-Term Care Around the World’. This article was partially inspired by the National Bureau of Economics project of the same name.
As part of this project, Dr Bram Wouterse, Dr Pieter Bakx and Prof. Eddy van Doorslaer (researchers from Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management) performed analyses regarding long-term care in the Netherlands. A summary of their analysis was included in the article.
What Long-Term Care Looks Like in the Netherlands
The Dutch have included long-term care in their universal health care system since 1968. One public insurance program pays for nursing homes and other institutional settings, and another pays for nursing and personal care at home. Enrollment is mandatory. Dutch taxpayers contribute nearly 10 percent of their income toward insurance premiums, up to a set amount. Out-of-pocket payments amount to about 7 percent of the cost of institutional care. General taxes pay for a third program in which municipalities provide financial assistance and social support for older people living at home. There is no private long-term care insurance. The Netherlands spent 4.1 percent of its gross domestic product on long-term care in 2021, more than any other country tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and four times the amount the United States spent.
Click here to read the full article and learn more about what long-term care looks like around the world.
Click here to read the other articles as part of this New York Times series.
- Associate professor
- Associate professor
- Researcher