The New Frontiers of Welfare Systems: The Employability, Employment and Protection of People with Chronic Diseases

A growing share of the economically active population reports to suffer from a temporary inability or a reduced ability to work because of the onset and the course of a chronic disease. Leaving aside overly technical definitions used in medicine and other research domains, this paper employs the expression “chronic diseases” to refer to irreversible pathological alterations that require special treatment, long-term monitoring, observation, and care. These include cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, several types of cancer, diabetes, obesity, epilepsy, depression and other mental disorders. As far as the cases examined in this paper are concerned, the impact that chronic diseases have on sick people in terms of income, job opportunities, career prospects and social inclusion varies considerably, as do the effects on their family members who are tasked with providing care and assistance (i.e. caregivers). Some measures that might help cope with these specific issues are provided by the national systems of social security (e.g. early retirement programmes ensuring access to pension schemes or sickness allowances) and by laws and collective bargaining (e.g. the total or partial suspension of employment and the provision of wage compensation on a temporary basis).