Crossing the river by feeling for the stones: contesting models of marketization and the development of China’s long-term care services

Abstract

Incorporating market mechanisms into public provision of long-term care (LTC) is part of a global trend featuring the liberalization of policies and politics during the past four decades. Drawing on a conceptual framework of marketization developed by Anttonen and Meagher, this article examines how the market mechanism has been introduced in the delivery of public LTC services in Germany, U.S., and China. It also examines the lessons that China has learned and can further learn from the German and American experiences. The article shows that the U.S. and German models, which differ considerably from each other, have had strong influences on LTC policy-making in China, but the emerging Chinese system appears to be substantively different from both.