Welfare Reform on the Web (October 1999): Care of the Elderly - Overseas

THE EFFECTS OF RATIONING HOME-HELP SERVICES IN SPAIN AND SWEDEN: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

G. Sundström and M. Angeles Tortosa

Ageing and Society, vol. 19, 1999, p. 343-361

In Sweden, the previously very extensive programmes of old-age care have been cut. The government has been reducing home-help services and experimenting with privatisation. Spain, in contrast has been expanding services, which are mostly public. In both countries, measures of rationing have been introduced, and these have created problems and inequalities.