Long-term care financing in Austria

Abstract

With a universal long-term care (LTC) allowance programme, subsidized LTC services for dependent persons and a new programme coping with migrant care work in private households, Austria today is one of the European Union (EU) countries addressing the issue of LTC in a substantial manner. In 2006, Austria spent slightly less than 1 per cent of its GDP on care for elderly people alone, ranking the country fourth in the EU-25, behind Sweden (2.4 per cent), Denmark (1.7 per cent) and Norway (1.6 per cent) (Eurostat, 2010).