In the early 21st century, Dutch policymakers began to realize that demographic shifts with financing and workforce implications would threaten the sustainability of its universal long-term care system.
Over the past two decades, the Netherlands has undertaken a series of significant structural reforms to render the system more efficient and fiscally sustainable while also strengthening the health, autonomy, and quality of life of older adults and people with disabilities.
As the U.S. explores strategies to support its aging population amid severe fiscal and workforce constraints, much can be learned from the Dutch experience. This paper explores what policymakers and advocates in the U.S. can learn from promising Dutch policy and delivery-system innovations to future proof its system for the age wave, including the pivotal role of affordable housing to support aging in the community.
This paper is part of a broader research project that yielded a tandem publication on lessons for the U.S. from recent Dutch delivery-system innovations supporting person-centered aging.
Please click here to view the tandem paper, “Promising Housing and Long-Term Care Innovations for Person-Centered Aging Amid Financing and Workforce Challenges: Lessons from the Netherlands.”