To differentiate between the elderly and the disabled persons in long-term care or not? A comparative analysis of legal regulation in Finland, France, Germany, Japan and Spain

Toomas Kotkas (), Philippe Martin (), Hitomi Nagano and Marta Navas-Parejo Alonso
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Toomas Kotkas: UH - University of Helsinki
Philippe Martin: COMPTRASEC - Centre de droit comparé du travail et de la sécurité sociale - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Hitomi Nagano: Sophia University [Tokyo]
Marta Navas-Parejo Alonso: UC3M - Universidad Carlos III de Madrid = University of Carlos III of Madrid

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Abstract: It is not uncommon that a country's social welfare system includes separate long-term care schemes for the elderly and for the disabled persons. Often, the separation is based on an age criterion, i.e. if disability is only acquired after certain age, the person is not eligible for special long-term care services for the disabled. However, age-related criteria are problematic on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The exclusion of a person from special services simply based on their age violates the principle of non-discrimination. At the same time, as the proportion of elderly population in many countries has risen drastically, it is not necessarily financially realistic to assume that the elderly should have the equal right to special disability services which are often free-of-charge or with lower co-payments. This article analyses the policies in five countries whose aim is to solve the discrepancy between the non-discrimination principle and financial sustainability on long-term care schemes. It is argued that despite the different policy choices aimed at tackling the problem of economic sustainability of long-term care schemes, almost all countries are nevertheless still forced to resort to some kind of age criteria.

Keywords: social welfare funding; non-discrimination principle; disabled persons; elderly; Long-term care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Published in Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 2026, ⟨10.1080/09649069.2026.2697630⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05701847

DOI: 10.1080/09649069.2026.2697630

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