Is France prepared

Is France prepared for the explosion of the number of centenarians? The aging of European populations is not new. It is already accompanied by public policies in France, since the creation of the specific dependency benefit (1996), replaced in 2002 by the Personalized Allocation d'Autonomie (APA). The number of dependent people is not necessarily going to grow as exponentially as the aging of the population. With the improved standard of living of retirees and medical progress, they will be healthier than before. And they will be able to remain independent longer than previous generations. How to finance dependency policies? The financing of dependency is not so much a matter of political means as of choice. Either one opts for a familialist return, individualistic, based on the help of relatives (and women in particular), or one privileges a socialized model, based on the mutualization of costs and aids by social insurance. So far, successive governments have refused to make dependency a fifth social security risk, since taking on dependency would lead to an increase in social security contributions. What is the health issue? The "social" part (home help ...) of the dependency weighs between 5 and 7 billion euros. The health part costs about 12 to 13 billion. The challenge for Health Insurance is to better manage these elderly patients by saving money. One of the tracks studied is to limit the use of the hospital, which is very expensive, by developing a better articulation of home care.