Three local surveys on elderly home care were conducted in Roskilde (Denmark) Dublin (Ireland) and Modena (Italy) in 2003 as part of the European project Galca (Gender Analysis of Long Term Care) coordinated by the Fondazione G. Brodolini. The Galca surveys were primarily designed to provide evidence on the full costs of alternative Long Term Care arrangements, with detailed recording of the inputs to each regular care activity as well as detailed information on the carers and the elderly being cared for. This paper draws heavily on the results of the surveys to explore trade offs between cost effectiveness and equity of the different mix of care provisions in the three countries, with special emphasis on the issue of immigrant carers.