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The Care of Older People: Australia and the United Kingdom
Author(s) -
Healy Judith
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9515.00266
Subject(s) - kingdom , government (linguistics) , older people , limiting , conservative government , politics , economic growth , aged care , public administration , political science , nursing , economics , medicine , law , gerontology , paleontology , mechanical engineering , philosophy , linguistics , engineering , biology
Australia and the United Kingdom have tried various ways to contain the growth and cost of institutional care for older people. The Australian government adopted central planning strategies from the mid‐1980s that succeeded in limiting nursing home places and increasing community services. The United Kingdom government in the mid‐1990s required local governments to adopt quasi‐market strategies but with less success in containing the growth and cost of institutional care. The two countries changed political direction later in the 1990s but both the Australian Liberal (conservative) government and UK “New Labour” want people to pay more for their care in old age. Each country has something to learn from the policy experiences of the other, including the contentious issue of who should pay for aged care.