Long-term care policy in Japan and its implications for China / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the long-term care policy in Japan and discusses successes and challenges in order to provide policy guidelines for China. All Japanese adults aged 65 or over are covered by the long-term care in-surance ( LTCI) program and are eligible for both in-home and institutional-care services following a thorough, sys-tematic care certification process. The program is financed by a mix of general tax revenues from the three levels of gov-ernment , income-tested premiums, and standardized co-payments. A key success of the policy is its universal and compre-hensive coverage. Notwithstanding this success, increasing costs remain a challenge as Japan’s population ages and the number of LTCI users increases. Learning from the experience of Japan, China should establish a long-term care system, which covers all the aged population, mainly focuses on in-home care, and qualifies social funding to invest.