Increasing the sustainability of long-term care in an ageing society: lessons from the Netherlands

The provision and financing of affordable and high-quality long-term care (LTC) to a rapidly ageing population is a major challenge for many countries. This is particularly true for Japan, which is faced with the largest share of elderly people, and the Netherlands, which has the most comprehen-sive and expensive public LTC insurance scheme. This paper analyzes the challenges for a sustainable provision and financing of LTC in the Netherlands and discusses which strategies are employed to meet these challenges.