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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Means testing and the heterogeneity of housing assets
— funding long-term care in Spain | | Author(s) | Joan Costa-Font, Oscar Mascarilla-Miro, David Elvira |
| Journal title | Social Policy & Administration, vol 40, no 5, October 2006 |
| Pages | pp 543-559 |
| Source | http://www.blackwell-synergy.com |
| Keywords | Means testing ; Housing [elderly] ; Assets [elderly] ; Services ; Health services ; Long term ; Finance [care] ; Insurance [elderly] ; Spain. |
| Annotation | The access to publicly funded long-term care (LTC) in Spain has been traditionally rationed through the use of means tests based on individuals' current income and needs. However, individuals' wealth - primarily housing assets - is progressively taken into account. In parallel, the responsibilities for the organisation of LTC services have been devolved to region states - autonomous communities (ACs) - giving rise to some regional heterogeneity, though limited credence has been reported as the underlying determinants. This paper examines the current role of housing assets in determining public and private funding for LTC in Spain. Secondly, the authors present a qualitative and quantitative examination of the regional heterogeneity in the processes of public funding criteria determining eligibility to public support for LTC. Finally, they report survey evidence on the individual's willingness to sell (WTS) their housing assets in order to either totally or partially finance access to LTC. Their findings suggest that housing assets are the main source of wealth accumulation at old age. If there is significant regional heterogeneity in the access to LTC resulting from regional differences in the means testing criteria. Progressively, all ACs are considering housing assets in the means testing criteria. Interestingly, individuals' willingness to sell their housing assets declines with age and is more common among less skilled and widowed individuals. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-061115208 A |
| Classmark | JF4C: KE: JD: I: L: 4Q: QC: JG: 76S |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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