A government commission has issued a final report about "elderly care insurance," saying it will adopt the program as a test project starting in the second half of 2007. The "public elderly care system" will provide diverse services relating to geriatric diseases such as dementia and palsy and for daily services such as nursing, hairdressing, bathing, and other care over an extended period for elderly who have a hard time living on their own because of other diseases.
The government is going in the right direction with this policy because Korean society is aging rapidly. In fact, these are things that have long been a source of much suffering for families and society. It was not rare to have families broken as the result of fighting over the financial burden and responsibility for nursing and other care. There do exist a few private facilities but services there are way too expensive for regular members of society to have access to or the facilities themselves are so poor that they are an embarrassment. This is something the country must assume responsibility for, especially at a time when it seeks to become and "advanced society."
While we fully agree with the need to adopt this program, we would like to state that having a national consensus will be very important in having it implemented smoothly. Money is of course the biggest problem. The government's proposal is to have government support pay for 40 percent, then take another 40 percent from "elderly care insurance" and have recipients pay for the remaining 20 percent. It is the "elderly care insurance" where resistance is expected. The fees would be levied separately from health insurance fees, and while the fees might start out small they will grow significantly with the rise in the country's elderly population. The government will have to present the people with a level of financial burden that they find convincing. It needs to learn from the painful lessons of the habitual bureaucratic approach it took to dividing the boundaries of the legal professions of doctors and pharmacists and the expansion of the National Pension to the whole population, since its approach led to a lot of pain, confusion, and expenses. The success of a new program is not guaranteed by nice-looking blueprints. It depends on how thorough the implementation is done under social agreement.
The Hankyoreh, 25 March 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] No 'Trial & Error' for Elderly Care Insurance |
