The Feasibility of Universal Long-Term–Care Benefits: Ideas from Canada

CANADA'S expansion of its program of universal health insurance to include long-term care offers valuable insights for similar broad-based efforts in the United States. Most Canadian provinces provide universal long-term–care benefits that include health care, personal care, and social services for functionally impaired persons. Such services are offered both in residential settings, such as nursing homes, and in the community. Eligibility is based on functional impairment without regard to the individual's income; co-payments, if levied, are designed to leave even the poorest pensioner with a small disposable income. In the fall of 1981, we undertook a two-year study of long-term.