Long-term Care System Models: A Review of the Netherlands, Northern Europe and the United Kingdom

There are three long-term care models: social insurance model, universal model and means tested model, which can be represented by the Netherlands, Northern Europe and the United Kingdom. The Netherlands established a mandatory long-term care insurance plan in 1968; the Nordic countries provide universal long-term care services based on a public system funded by central and local taxation; the United Kingdom provides long-term care services for low-income groups based on means surveys. Through analysis, it is found that all three models have the problem of high financing pressure, and they are converging on quite similar trend on organizing and providing long-term care services to promote the sustainability of long-term care system.