Routledge Revival: Equity Choices and Long-Term Care Policies in Europe (2001): Allocating Resources and Burdens in Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (Routledge Revivals)

This title was first published in 2001: Employing an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to equity in long-term care, this book addresses the fact that demographic changes leading to ageing populations, financial pressures and changes in traditional support systems have brought long-term care and the redesign of care systems to the top of the European social policy agenda. Despite the importance of this issue, however, the question of equity in long-term care has until now received relatively little attention in social policy research. Rather than focusing on theories of social justice or the analysis of specific interpretations of equity, this book develops key dimensions of equity choices in a framework for systematic comparative analysis. This tool is then used to investigate long-term care policies in Europe, exploring equity choices in both the provision and the finance of long-term care. These choices are discussed comparatively with regard to the implications for the various actors and are also contrasted with basic welfare state objectives. This book represents an important addition to comparative research into several key areas of welfare and welfare state design. It explores the division of responsibilities in long-term care systems between the public and private and formal and informal sectors, the relationships between different welfare state objectives, the different types of welfare state intervention, and the principles and choices surrounding the allocation of resources and burdens. Review Prize: 2001 Austrian Academy of Science Social Policy Book Prize Award Winner ’...August Österle has produced a critical study, on the important subject of equity choices in long-term care, which both sets and achieves a high level of scholarly debate. The findings will undoubtedly make a valuable contribution to the policy literature.’ European Journal of Social Work ’One comes away from Equity Choices and Long-Term Care Policies in Europe in admiration of the painstaking conceptual and empirical efforts Österle has made...For purposes of course adoption, usage would be most appropriate for advanced courses in social policy analysis, health policy, long-term care policy and comparative public policy.’ International Journal of Social Welfare About the Author August Oesterle is Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Policy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Austria. Previously he worked as Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence in 1998/99 and as Research Fellow at the University of Bath in 1995. His work is mainly on the socio-economics of health and long-term care policies and on comparative social policy. Publications include a co-authored book on the socio-economics of social policy and a co-authored book on social policy in Austria, both now published in their second edition