Discuss the Problems and Pressure of Health and Long Term Care on Welfare States in a Comparative Social Policy Context

Discuss the problems and pressure of health and long term care on welfare states in a comparative social policy context.

The aim of this essay is to discuss the problems and problems of health and long term care on welfare states in comparative social policy context. I will begin my essay my defining the key concepts, health, long -term care and welfare states. I will discuss the five core aims that the world health organisation has established in terms of internationally health. Then I will explain the different foundations of the healthcare system in regards to the different healthcare systems adapted by different welfare states. The essay continues and focuses on the health expenditure in the European Union and focuses on the German and Estonia and discusses the indirect relationship between the social economic conditions of a country and the health inequalities of a country. Globalisation is a problem facing every healthcare system I will discuss how globalisation has impacted and forced the restructuring and regulation of health care systems in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United states. I will Emphasis the pressures of the ageing population, family changes and the role employment participation has on the formal and informal long term care. I will conclude my essay my drawing upon Esping Anderson’s concept of de- commodification can be used as a measuring tool of the overall welfare states provision provided by a country.

The world health organisation definition of health, defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (www.who.int) The term long term care is not easily defined because of the distorted boundaries among primary and acute in the health care systems, there is a vague definition of who as full responsibility of the long-term care, because traditionally family networks, charitable support and social assistance were core providers .However in the past twenty years the government recognises that fact that long term care is a social risk. The aim of long term care is to minimize, rehabilitate, or compensate for loss of independent physical or mental functioning, the services include the assistance with basic activities of daily lives such as bathing, dressing eating or personal care and also fundamental daily routines such as household chores, cleaning, laundry and by performing essential services such as money management and transportation. (Stone et al., 2000) Welfare state is the government plays an integral role in the economic and social well- being of all its citizens. (Stone et al., 2000)The overall goal of the health care system is “better health care for all.” The world health organisation has identified five key elements in order to achieve this goal firstly, to decrease the social disparities in health (universal coverage reforms) Secondly, to organize health services around