The legal position of persons dependent on long-term care in the Republic of Poland

Abstract

In recent years, Polish literature has increasingly focused on long-term care and persons dependent on it. The reason is obvious: Polish society is ageing and the trend is likely to continue. According to the Central Statistical Office of Poland 5,153,000 persons in Poland were older than 65 years in 2010, which is a proportion of 13.53% of the overall population. By 2035, this figure will have risen to 8,358,000 persons, representing 23.22% of the population. Also the number of persons aged 80 and older will see a drastic rise: in 2009, there were 1,252,000 persons of this age group living in Poland, while in 2035 this number will have doubled to 2,574,000 persons. The relevance of these figures must not be underestimated, as most persons dependent on long-term care are elderly persons–particularly those referred to as the “old elderly” (old persons aged 75–85 years) and the “very old elderly” (aged 85 and older). This is to say, however, that the topic of long-term care is, naturally, not only relevant for old persons, but for all age groups of society. These demographic changes pose a great challenge to society and the State. The economic development and mobility of young persons has led to the circumstance that the family today (children, grandchildren) can rarely guarantee the provision of long-term care to the older generation, which in former times had been quite the common thing to do. Thus, certain measures must be taken which guarantee a life in dignity to the elderly and particularly to persons dependent on long-term care. Long-term care measures are costly, however: the public expenditures in this field amounted to approximately 10 billion PLN in 2005 alone, and had increased to 13 billion PLN by 2008. According to B. Wieckowska and J. Koettl, public expenditures for long-term care will see a rapid rise–up to 21.5 billion PLN by 2020, 35.5 billion PLN by 2030 and 71 billion in 2060 (this being an optimistic estimate). Unless the long-term care system and its financing structure are changed, this will have drastic impacts on the State budget. The lawmakers are, already at this stage, very aware of the fact that the system of long-term care must undergo fundamental reforms. This will be discussed in chapters “Long Term Care in Hungary” and “Long-Term Care Benefits and Services in Italy”. The first chapters shall describe the long-term care benefits and services currently granted to persons who need them, i.e. benefits granted through the social insurance system or health insurance schemes, or in the form of social assistance.