Which Policy Frame for a Common Europe? : LTC Market as a Way to Think about EU Actual Integration

Long-term care (LTC) is a twofold policy problem, implying a 'soft' social service dimension and a 'hard' health service one. In Europe, the two different dimensions traditionally found no specific solutions, resting on the available all-purpose public/family delivery systems of social and health provisions. But since the 1980s and from the US, LTC has risen as a distinct policy problem that both public services and families are said unable to cope with but at unbearable costs. Markets hence seems the more viable delivery system for this kind of provisions. The contribution aims to focus on the framing beyond this policy shrink -appearently reinforced by the EU Commission- and on the problems that its implementation is rising in an Italian case study.