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The purpose of this paper is to look at family carers’ views and experiences of self-funded care for older people with an emphasis on attitudes to public intervention.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with family carers in a densely populated city in Northern England. Study participants were recruited according to a purposive sampling strategy; data analysis was based on a qualitative content analysis approach.

The paper concludes that it may not be straightforward for local authorities to engage with family carers as appropriate under the Care Act 2014. An issue is that family carers do not envisage an intervention of the local authority in circumstances involving the use of privately paid social services.

Qualitative information gathered within a broad study of family carers’ views, attitudes and practices of care of dependent older people have been interpreted in the light of the provisions of the Care Act 2014 concerning self-funders. The qualitative approach and the limited number of study participants are issues with the generalisation of findings.

Only a handful of studies have attempted to look into family carers’ experiences of self-funded care and the paper aims to contribute to such limited literature. It also provides an evidence-based assessment of the challenges associated with the implementation of the Care Act 2014.

Many countries around the world are facing great challenges from their ageing population with shrinking workforce, this will put more pressure on their financial system and will increase the public spending on care costs provided to older people. Egypt is in the phase of establishing a new law for older people care's rights, a law that will organise how older people in need for care would benefit from access to government financial support and how will families support their older relatives financially and how the care costs will be shared between the older people, their families and the government.

The paper examines the suitability two cost-sharing methods and applying them to assess the effect on the individuals and families' income strain.

The preferred approach can be used for sharing costs as it applies a gradual funding withdrawal by the government and provide more fairness and flexibility for application in different regions. Besides, the parameters of this approach can be used by policy makers to control the levels of funding.

The paper will be the first to discuss the intergenerational fairness from a financial perspective in Egypt to avoid forcing older people into poverty or resorting to poverty trade-off.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the principal challenges facing the health and care system in England arising from an ageing population, assess the track record of the coalition government in addressing these and offer a perspective on the priorities likely to be faced by the next incoming government in relation to health and social care for older people.

Assessment of key policy documents and legislation and interpretation of published data on trends in health and social care activity and expenditure.

An ageing population requires a fundamental shift towards a new model of care that offers better coordinated care and promotes independence and healthy ageing. The Care Act 2014 is a significant achievement and NHS spending has been protected, but resulting cuts to local government budgets have since sharp reductions in social care for older people. The next incoming government will need to address a deepening financial crisis in health and care system; the increasingly unsustainability of means tested and rationed social care alongside universal free health care; and the need to make faster progress in developing a new models of integrated care closer to home.

The issues raised in this paper affect older people as voters, tax payers and as existing or potential users of health and social care services. As a group they will attract significant attention from political parties in the next election campaign.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current policy of extending personal budgets to older people.

In developing this explanation, the paper draws upon a species of de-centred, post-foundationalist theory which draws attention to the way in which certain narratives can sustain a longing for the implementation of policies that are ultimately unachievable. The paper also draws upon original data from an evaluation of a national ageing charity’s project to increase take-up of personal budgets.

The paper draws attention to, and seeks to explain, the paradoxical discursive positioning of older adults as “the unexceptional exception” within the general narrative of universal personalisation.

This analytical approach can secure a different vantage point in this debate by paying closer attention to the ideological and ethical dimensions of personalisation than has been the case until now.

The paper contributes to the critical interrogation of the personalisation agenda, in which debate (both in academic and practitioner circles) has become highly polarised.

The paper contributes to discussions in critical social gerontology which point to a bifurcation of later life into, on the one hand, an ageless third age and a frailed fourth age, on the other.

The paper makes clear that the discursive positioning of older people as “the unexceptional exception” risks an inadvertent ageism.

Using the example of community access programs (CAPs), the purpose of this paper is to describe resource allocation and policy decisions related to providing health services for the uninsured in the USA and the organizational values affecting these decisions.

The study used comparative case study methodology at two geographically diverse sites. Researchers collected data from program documents, meeting observations, and interviews with program stakeholders.

Five resource allocation or policy decisions relevant to providing healthcare services were described at each site across three categories: designing the health plan, reacting to funding changes, and revising policies. Organizational values of access to care and stewardship most frequently affected resource allocation and policy decisions, while economic and political pressures affect the relative prioritization of values.

Small sample size, the potential for social desirability or recall bias, and the exclusion of provider, member or community perspectives beyond those represented among participating board members.

Program directors or researchers can use this study to assess the extent to which resource allocation and policy decisions align with organizational values and mission statements.

The description of how healthcare decisions are actually made can be matched with literature that describes how healthcare resource decisions ought to be made, in order to provide a normative grounding for future decisions.

This study addresses a gap in literature regarding how CAPs actually make resource allocation decisions that affect access to healthcare services.

To explore from an ethical paradigm the current research in support of and opposition to imposing caps on non‐economic damages as a means of addressing the healthcare crisis.

A review of peer‐ and non‐peer‐reviewed articles primarily covering the period from 2001‐2004, which addresses the rationale articulated in support of and in opposition to imposing caps on non‐economic damages. The articles are sorted into sections and critiqued: rationale for imposing caps, arguments against caps, ethical paradigms impacting caps, and conclusions.

Provides information from the various sources. Addresses the biases that may have shaped the authors' conclusions and some of the ethical paradigms that may have impacted positions. Also demonstrates that the unbiased research seems to establish a minimal nexus between caps and the proposed impact.

Focus is exclusively on the US healthcare and judicial system. However, findings may still have implications outside the USA in countries that have similar tort laws for addressing private wrongs.

A useful source of information for graduate students in public policy or healthcare management courses, or legislators looking for a quick reference to research regarding this topic area.

This paper fulfills an identified resource for non‐biased assessment of the problem presented and provides a critical review of the reasons articulated in support of this public policy.

In healthcare, overuse and underuse of medical treatments represent equally dangerous deviations from an optimal use equilibrium and arouse concerns about possible implications for patients’ health, and for the healthcare system in terms of both costs and access to medical care. Medical liability plays a dominant role among the elements that can affect these deviations. Therefore, a remarkable economic literature studies how medical decisions are influenced by different levels of liability. In particular, identifying the relation between liability and treatments selection, as well as disentangling the effect of liability from other incentives that might be in place, is a task for sound empirical research. Several studies have already tried to tackle this issue, but much more needs to be done. In this chapter, we offer an overview of the state of the art in the study of the relation between liability and treatments selection. First, we reason on the theoretical mechanisms underpinning the relationship under investigation by presenting the main empirical predictions of the related literature. Second, we provide a comprehensive summary of the existing empirical evidence and its main weaknesses. Finally, we conclude by offering guidelines for further research.