Carrino, L. and Orso, C.E., 2015. 31 Eligibility regulations and formal home-care utilisation among the vulnerable older people in SHARE Wave 5

Availability, accessibility and acceptability of public home-based programmes of
long-term care for older people in Europe is under intense analysis. Tightening
government budget constraints, together with the ongoing ageing process, call
for efficient and effective home-care provision that could promote the practice
of healthy (and active) ageing among older adults (European Commission 2014).
Gaining insights on availability, accessibility, acceptability and utilisation of
formal home-care is therefore particularly useful to improve both its efficiency
and effectiveness.
In this chapter we explore the determinants of access to formal home-care
for the older population in Europe. We contribute to the existing literature in that
we take into account the institutional regulations for public LTC programmes,
which label individuals as “eligible” or “non-eligible” to in-kind/in-cash benefits,
according to their medical-status. In particular, we investigate potential
“failures” of LTC programmes, which arise when vulnerable individuals who are
legally entitled to receive formal-service, do not receive any (the so-called “nocare
zone” (Wallace 1990)) or when, conversely, individuals make use of homecare
although not being eligible for it.