Social policies and long term care in Central and Eastern Europe 10th Annual ESPAnet conference, Edinburgh, 6-8 September 2012 Stream 11 Work in progress. Please do not quote without author’s permission Any comments are more than welcome Paweł Łuczak PhD candidate Poznań University of Economics Department of Labour and Social Policy al. Niepodległości 10, 61-875 Poznań, Poland pawel.luczak@ue.poznan.pl Abstract It is only recently that the notion of Long Term Care (LTC) has become one of the focal points in the public discussion on welfare state reform in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In Poland the new law concerning LTC is being prepared by the Parliament and in the Czech Republic there was a reform in 2006. However, caring for the frail elderly people is still regarded as a private responsibility and there is a very limited direct public support from the governments to family carers. As a result, provision and financing of care depend, to a great extent, on the capabilities of private households. This study addresses the question of the diversity in the elderly care systems across CEE. The including into the analysis the pension and the housing-takes the broad perspective on care regimes. The research question is: to what extent can we talk about common care regime in CEE? In other words, are there any differences in the roles that welfare state policies play in the realm of the elderly care in the CEE countries? According to the theoretical framework of the paper, concerning LTC households’ strategies utilization are shaped by their asset base and by the institutional context they live in. Care regime is understood as an institutional setting consisting of public welfare policies affecting the way LTC is delivered and provided by households. The private households are operating in this institutional framework by drawing on resources important for LTC utilization coming from public policies This paper concludes that there are considerable variations among countries in the CEE region with regard to the LTC. Importantly, these differences become even more visible if we focus on the outcomes of the policies enhancing autonomy of the elderly, namely, public pension and housing.
Social policies and long term care in Central and Eastern Europe 10th Annual ESPAnet conference, Edinburgh, 6-8 September 2012 Stream 11 Work in progress. Please do not quote without author’s permission Any comments are more than welcome Paweł Łuczak PhD candidate Poznań University of Economics Department of Labour and Social Policy al. Niepodległości 10, 61-875 Poznań, Poland pawel.luczak@ue.poznan.pl Abstract It is only recently that the notion of Long Term Care (LTC) has become one of the focal points in the public discussion on welfare state reform in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In Poland the new law concerning LTC is being prepared by the Parliament and in the Czech Republic there was a reform in 2006. However, caring for the frail elderly people is still regarded as a private responsibility and there is a very limited direct public support from the governments to family carers. As a result, provision and financing of care depend, to a great extent, on the capabilities of private households. This study addresses the question of the diversity in the elderly care systems across CEE. The including into the analysis the pension and the housing-takes the broad perspective on care regimes. The research question is: to what extent can we talk about common care regime in CEE? In other words, are there any differences in the roles that welfare state policies play in the realm of the elderly care in the CEE countries? According to the theoretical framework of the paper, households’ strategies concerning LTC utilization are shaped by their asset base and by the institutional context they live in. Care regime is understood as an institutional setting consisting of public welfare policies affecting the way LTC is delivered and provided by households. The private households are operating in this institutional framework by drawing on resources important for LTC utilization coming from public policies This paper concludes that there are considerable variations among countries in the CEE region with regard to the LTC. Importantly, these differences become even more visible if we focus on the outcomes of the policies enhancing autonomy of the elderly, namely, public pension and housing.