Background

Health economics research and economic evaluation have increasingly taken a societal perspective, accounting for the economic impacts of informal care. Projected economic costs of informal care help researchers and policymakers understand better the long-term consequences of policy reforms and health interventions. This study makes projections of the economic costs of informal care for older people in England.

Methods

Data come from two national surveys: the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, N = 35,425) and the Health Survey for England (N = 17,292). We combine a Markov model with a macrosimulation model to make the projections. We explore a range of assumptions about future demographic and epidemiological trends to capture model uncertainty and take a Bayesian approach to capture parameter uncertainty.

Results

We estimate that the economic costs of informal care were £54.2 billion in 2019, three times larger than the expenditure on formal long-term care. Those costs are projected to rise by 87% by 2039, faster than public expenditure but slower than private expenditure on formal long-term care. These results are sensitive to assumptions about future life expectancy, fertility rates, and progression of disabilities in the population.

Conclusions

Prevention schemes aiming to promote healthy aging and independence will be important to alleviate the costs of informal care. The government should strengthen support for informal caregivers and care recipients to ensure the adequacy of care, protect the well-being of caregivers, and prevent the costs of informal care from spilling over to other sectors of the economy.