Costs and benefits of home care for the elderly versus residential care: a comparison using propensity scores.

A comparison of the costs of residential care and home care shows that the former is more expensive for society. However, elderly people seem to be happier in residential care. All stakeholders, except the state (and thus the taxpayer), benefit if elderly people enter residential care. This reveals that payment systems in the Netherlands contain adverse incentives stimulating entry into residential care. The research is based on surveys of older people in the Netherlands living at home and those living in residential care homes in the period 2007-2009. Propensity score matching is used to match people living at home with those living in residential care. All costs of living and health care are compared for these two groups.