Living conditions and quality of life
Access to care services: Early childhood education and care, healthcare and long-term care
Published:
08 October 2020
Research report
Abstract
The right of access to good-quality care services is highlighted in the European Pillar of Social Rights. This report focuses on three care services: early childhood education and care (ECEC), healthcare, and long-term care. Access to these services has been shown to contribute to reducing inequalities throughout the life cycle and achieving equality for women and persons with disabilities. Drawing on input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and Eurofound’s own research, the report presents an overview of the current situation in various EU Member States, Norway and the UK, outlining barriers to the take-up of care services and differences in access issues between population groups. It pays particular attention to three areas that have the potential to improve access to services: ECEC for children with disabilities and special educational needs, e-healthcare and respite care.
Key findings
- Policymakers should pay attention to the various outcomes across the spectrum of access problems, not just unmet needs. People may eventually meet their care needs but face difficulties throughout the process.
- Unaffordability is a key barrier, but reducing the cost of care does not address this if broader household income and expenditure needs are not taken into account.
- To effectively enforce the right to access, it is important to focus on the multiple dimensions along the whole process, from identifying to meeting needs, addressing household, organisational and societal factors.
- Many people do not use early childhood education and care or long-term care due to having informal care arrangements in place – but could benefit from using the services if they were more affordable, better-tailored or of higher quality.
- To become more resistant to economic shocks, access to healthcare should rely less on income and employment.
Table 1: Number of respite care recipients, selected countries
Figure 1: ECEC, healthcare and long-term care in the European Pillar of Social Rights
Figure 2: General framework for access to care services
Figure 3: Main reasons for not using professional ECEC, EU27 and the UK, 2018 (%)
Figure 4: Main reasons for not meeting needs for formal ECEC services, EU27 and the UK, 2016 (%)
Figure 5: Level of difficulty in affording ECEC services by income group, EU27 and the UK, 2016 (%)
Figure 6: Proportion of people reporting unmet medical needs and main reason, EU27 and the UK, 2018 (%)
Figure 7: Main reason for unmet medical needs, EU27 and the UK, 2018 (%)
Figure 8: Financial barriers to accessing healthcare: ‘unmet needs’ versus ‘access difficulties’, EU27 and the UK, 2016 (%)
Figure 9a: Unmet needs due to any reason, by employment status, EU27 and the UK, 2010–2018 (%)
Figure 9b: Unmet needs due to affordability, by employment status, EU27 and the UK, 2010–2018 (%)
Figure 10: Proportion of people anticipating difficulties paying for particular types of healthcare, by income quartile and employment status, EU27 and the UK, 2016 (%)
Figure 11: Proportion of people with severe long-standing limitations due to health problems, by age group, EU27 and the UK, 2018 (%)
Figure 12: Use of formal long-term care in previous 12 months by respondent or someone close to them, country groupings, 2016 (%)
Figure 13: Proportion of people aged 65+ with some or severe activity limitations who lack assistance, 2014 (%)
Figure 14: Professional home care: main reason for unmet needs, 2016 (%)
Figure 15: Proportion of people using professional home care services by hours used, EU27 and the UK, 2016 (%)
- Number of pages
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88
- Reference nº
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EF20015
- ISBN
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978-92-897-2108-0
- Catalogue nº
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TJ-02-20-624-EN-N
- DOI
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10.2806/7624
- Permalink
Cite this publication
Eurofound (2020), Access to care services: Early childhood education and care, healthcare and long-term care, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.