Project Summary

The increasing ageing-population trends projected up to 2050 pose a great challenge to Greece’s fragile economic and social development. Most of the EU countries have already implemented key policies and national strategies aiming to reduce the impact of population ageing. However, the lack of comprehensive national strategy and policies to address the intersectional consequences of ageing will lead Greece to a social, economic, fiscal, political, and humanitarian uncertainty. Thus, in 2020, the government of Greece set out to develop a national ageing strategy for Greece. It commissioned the University of Piraeus to conduct a programme of research for the development of the strategy. The University of Piraeus subcontracted parts of the work to CPEC-LSE, as well as to other Universities and Institutions in Greece and Brookdale Institute - Israel. The National strategy and action plan on ageing tried to propose solutions to selected challenges associated with population ageing and provided a policy tool for actions required to ensure that everyone in Greece could experience both a long and healthy life and better quality of healthcare and long-term care services. In particular, the main focus of the present study was to improve healthy ageing and prevent dependence, promote employability, longer working lives for older people and upgrading skills, as well as strengthening the pension and long-term care services, community services and overall the optimal use of services for older adults. Moreover, addressing the inequalities and accessibility of older Greek people, especially in health and long-term care sector was at the core of the present project.

Outputs

CPEC-LSE's outcomes: Mapping of LTC services in Greece - including elements of international comparison. A qualitative study of current telecare services in Greece, including barriers and facilitators of implementing these services. Provide evidence of social insurance for long-term care in old age and private long-term care insurance arrangements in developed countries. A survey of public attitudes to provide and paying for long-term care in Greece.

PUBLICATIONS & OTHER OUTPUTS

Output 1

Karagiannidou, M. and Wittenberg, R., 2022. Social insurance for long-term care. Journal of Population Ageing, 15(2), pp.557-575. The issue of how best to finance long-term care (LTC) is the subject of recent reforms, forthcoming reforms or continuing debate in various countries and remains as relevant and challenging as ever. LTC services are crucial to the wellbeing of large numbers of older adults who need help with everyday tasks. Demand for LTC for older adults is projected to rise across developed and developing countries as the number of older adults rises. Supply of care services is likely to remain constrained due to shortages of long-term care workforce and financial constraints in many countries, and the financial risks associated with LTC remain. Financing of LTC is a complicated issue which raises considerations of economic efficiency and incentives, equity including intergenerational equity, the balance of risk between public and private funding, and sustainability of public expenditures. The aim of this paper is to discuss analytically the case for social insurance as an equitable and efficient way to finance LTC. The paper considers social insurance systems, especially in Germany and Japan, in comparison with safety net tax funded systems such as in England and the USA and more generous tax funded systems such as in Sweden and Denmark. Social insurance has advantages and disadvantages compared with these other systems. It tends to be associated with greater clarity and acceptability since it involves collection of revenues ear marked for LTC and, at least in principle, a link between contributions and benefits on the basis of clear eligibility criteria.