The Confederation of Care and Assistance Providers (COPAS) is an employers’ association bringing together around 57 providers, employing 15,000 staff and supporting 17,000 beneficiaries across home-care services, residential and nursing homes, disability support, and non-hospital psychiatric care. These organisations deliver preventive, educational, therapeutic, and rehabilitative services and form, according to COPAS president Pierre Jaeger. It is Luxembourg’s largest actor in the non-hospital healthcare sector.
Asked about the recent developments in Luxembourg’s healthcare sector, Jaeger stated that the organisation is closely following the national debates on the National Health Fund (CNS) agreements, the risk of a two-tier system, and the commercial pressures on medicine, but will not take an explicit public position for now.
Jaeger stressed that for COPAS, the priority is ensuring the patient remains the central figure in the system and improving collaboration between all actors involved.
The conversation turned to current challenges. Jaeger highlighted their scale: a growing and ageing population, rising chronic illnesses, a persistent shortage of qualified personnel, and heavy administrative demands that weigh on daily operations. Despite being a major actor, COPAS is not represented at the quadripartite meeting between the government, social partners, and healthcare providers, where key decisions affecting its members are taken. Jaeger argued that this needs to change, as COPAS is directly affected by tariff negotiations and policy reforms.
He added that cooperation between hospitals, home-care providers, residential institutions, and other stakeholders must improve. Information-sharing, digitalisation of processes, and clearer coordination structures are still lacking. As an example, he pointed to tariff negotiations for medication management, foreseen in the 2023 coalition agreement, noting that if no realistic tariff is agreed, costs could eventually fall on users.
The non-hospital care sector faces acute staffing needs: 150 to 200 positions will need to be filled by 2026, yet the qualified candidates simply aren’t there, Jaeger said. He described a widespread issue of over-qualification, with the available workforce not matching the qualifications required for specific care roles.
Together with the Ministry of Health and Social Security, ADEM, and training institutions, COPAS is developing transition pathways between qualification levels, for example enabling a care assistant with a Vocational Aptitude Diploma (DAP) to progress toward a nursing role, Jaeger said. However, he said that progress is slower than needed.
Jaeger stated that Luxembourg must also accelerate the recognition of foreign qualifications, expand opportunities for in-service training, and create structured reconversion routes for adults wishing to enter the sector.
More broadly, Jaeger insisted that health and care careers must become more attractive to young people. He concluded that work is already under way with partners such as the Federation of Social Sector Actors in Luxembourg (FEDAS) to raise awareness among school-age students, but that substantial change is still required.
