Does Long-Term Care Subsidisation Reduce Hospital Admissions?

One of the intended effects of an integrated network of long-term care (LTC) services lies in the reduction of (unnecessary) health care utilisation. This paper draws upon the quasi-experimental evidence from Spain to examine the causal effect of the expansion of affordable long-term care (LTC) access (after the introduction of a new universal LTC subsidy) on hospital admissions (both on the internal and external margin) and its duration or length of stay (LOS). We find robust evidence of a reduction in both measures of hospitalisation among both those receiving a caregiving allowance and, though less intense, among beneficiaries of publicly funded home care (amounting to 11% of total hospital costs), and among regions coordinating health and social care. Consistently, a reduction in the subsidy is found to significantly attenuate such effects.