Background

The Personal Autonomy and Dependent Care Law came to effect in Spain on January 1st 2007. Originally, the intention behind this Dependency Law was to configure the right of assistance to dependent people as a legal right, legally obligating public authorities to offer and provide any care dependent citizens require.

Nevertheless, Spain’s economic situation is far from that in 2007. A harsh recession has forced Spanish authorities to impose a series of severe budget cutbacks. The recent 2012 Dependency Law reform introduced short-term cost-containment measures such as copayments, delays on recognizing and giving benefits to new dependents and reducing the number of dependency severity degrees from 6 to 3.

The combination of Spain’s economic slow-down and the demographic trend (an increasing number of retired citizens and a relative decrease on the amount of contributors) raise major concerns about the sustainability of the Long-Term Care System, highlighting the need for a major systemic reform.

 

Spanish Law of Dependency

 

Presentations of the Workshop on Evaluation of Public Policies for sustainable Long Term Care in Spain, 2015

 

Presentations of the Workshop on Evaluation of Public Policies for sustainable Long Term Care in Spain, 2014

 

Presentations of the Workshop on Evaluation of Public Policies for sustainable Long Term Care in Spain, 2013