Sustainable financing is critical to securing high-quality, affordable LTC, especially given projected demographic changes.

Over the past 20 years, long-term care expenditure as a share of National Gross Domestic Product has increased in many European countries. This trend is expected to continue, with public expenditure on long-term care in EU member states projected to grow from 1.6% to 2.7% of GDP by 2060, representing an increase of almost 70%. 

In its current care strategy, the European Union encourages member states to mobilise funds and make cost-effective use of adequate and sustainable funding for long-term care, and pursue policies conducive to the sustainable funding of long-term care services that are coherent with the overall sustainability of public finances. 

The following briefing gathers recommendations to EU, national and local decision makers on what they can do to mobilise funds make more cost-effective use of available funds and what systemic changes they can induce to make our LTC systems more financially viable. 

The insights shared in this briefing have been collected from workshop contributions of social services managers and practitioners, researchers at the WHO, the European Centre for Social Welfare, the OECD, the Global Observatory of Long-Term Care and policy makers from the European Commission. Their insights have been complemented by findings of desk research.

An Executive Summary of the briefing can be downloaded in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.