The purposes of this study are 1) to investigate the current situation and problems of long-term care insurance for the elderly in rural areas, 2) to identify some policy implications from foreign cases, and 3) to suggest policy tasks to improve the long-term care insurance for the elderly.
The research methods include collection and analysis of existing data, analysis of foreign cases, interview, in-depth survey in 4 case study areas, and so on. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentage, means and cross-classification tables were used to organize and summarize the data.
Long-term care insurance for the elderly is the social insurance system that is designed to share the family burden of caring for the elderly with chronic conditions such as dementia or stroke. It encompasses a broad range of assistance that older people with chronic disabilities need for a prolonged period of time such as bathing, dressing, eating, etc.
Major problems of long-term care insurance for the elderly in rural areas are as follows: 1) problem of grade decision system, 2) supply unbalance of long-term care services and overcompetition, 3) inferior working conditions of long-term care staff, 4) excessive user share of expenses, 5) low recognition level, and 6) insufficient countermeasures for the failure grade.
Short-term policy tasks to improve the long-term care insurance for the elderly in rural areas are as follows: 1) visiting doctor's diagnostic service, 2) support reinforcement for the failure grade, 3) reinforcement of education and public relations, and 4) reinforcement of the support standard for long-distance transportation expense.
Mid- and long-term policy tasks to improve the long-term care insurance for the elderly in rural areas are as follows: 1) improvement of grade decision system, 2) improvement of the reduction plan for low income layer, 3) supply balance of long-term care services, 4) quality improvement of long-term care services, 5) improvement of working conditions of long-term care staff, and 6) production and publication of regional data.