Feasibility Study On The Long-term Care Insurance In Our Country

Since the end of last century, the social problems caused by the aging of the populationhave gradually emerged in many countries; especially the problem of elderly long termcare has aroused concern among the governments. On the one hand, with the developmentof modern society, the function of elderly support in family has gradually weakened. Homecare had no longer meted the request of elderly long term care. On the other hand, with theprogress of medical technology, medical expenditure has been rising fast. Especially,elderly long term care means longer treatment and higher costs. This not only has broughtenormous economic burden to the elderly, but also has raised medical insurance expensesof governments.In order to cope with the problem of the growing demand for elderly long term care,the American pioneered the long-term care insurance business in the1970s to alleviate theeconomic burden of the elderly and the government. After that, Germany, France and othercountries rolled out long term care insurance system. By the beginning of this century,Japan and Korea also launched social long term care insurance system. The long term careinsurance system has become one of major measures to deal with the aging problem.By the beginning of this century, China stepped into aging society and has been developingrapidly. The aging of our country have the feature of "get old before it gets rich", absolutelarge, and the particularity of the regional imbalance. Because of the one-child policy, thesizes of family are becoming increasingly smaller. In recent years, empty nest familyappeared in abundance. In addition to, our country present medical insurance system is notyet perfect, the costs of long term care will bring enormous economic burden to the elderly.Therefore, through analyzing the development of long term care insurance system in othercountry and combining with our national conditions, researching the establishment of longterm care insurance system in China will has great practical significance.For this paper, the first part defines the concept of long term care insurance. After that,the paper introduces the background, content and development of the long term careinsurance in American, Japan and Korea. Through analysis of these countries, it could bethe valuable experience for our country. Again, the paper analysis the necessity andfeasibility of long term care insurance system combined with the situation of our country.Finally, some measures and proposals were proposed on the implementation of long termcare insurance system in China.