focus on the two sessions| National People’s Congress Representative Zhou Yanfang: It is recommended to establish independent financing channels for long-term care insurance and explore the establishment of personal long-term care accounts

(Photo source: Visual China)

Blue Whale News, March 4 (Reporter Shi Yu)At present, my country is facing severe challenges brought about by the deepening aging of the population. The care of the disabled elderly has become the focus of social attention.

Blue Whale News reporter learned that during the two sessions this year, Zhou Yanfang, a representative of the National People’s Congress and director of the Strategic Research Center of China Pacific Insurance Corporation (ESG Office), put forward a proposal on accelerating the establishment of a long-term care insurance system and enhancing payment guarantee for elderly care services.

Zhou Yanfang, Representative of the National People’s Congress and Director of the Strategic Research Center of China Pacific Insurance (ESG Office)

Since 2016, my country has officially launched the pilot work of the long-term care insurance system. As of the end of 2023, the pilot has covered 49 cities, benefiting more than 180 million people, and a total of 2.36 million people have enjoyed relevant treatment. Zhou Yanfang believes that with the guidance of the government and the participation of all sectors of society, pilot cities have gradually explored and established a long-term care insurance system that adapts to my country’s national conditions, providing diversified nursing services for the elderly, and has achieved success in solving elderly care problems. Certain results have been achieved, but they also face challenges such as limited coverage, low level of payment guarantee, single fund raising channels, and insufficient ability to meet needs.

Based on this, Zhou Yanfang put forward a series of policy suggestions on accelerating the construction of an independent long-term care insurance system.

The first is to establish a unified national long-term care insurance system.On the basis of summarizing the pilot experience, a national institutional framework will be formulated to provide clear guidance and norms for the implementation of long-term care insurance, and clarify the basic principles, coverage, financing channels, insured objects, and paying groups of the long-term care insurance system. Basic requirements such as contribution rates and fund management ensure the fairness and sustainability of the system. The Elderly Care Services Law or the Long-term Care Insurance Law can be formulated with reference to Volume 11 of the German Social Code to clarify the attributes of independent insurance types. As one of the social protection systems, the long-term care insurance system should be positioned to provide basic coverage and provide broad coverage, give priority to protecting qualified disabled elderly and severely disabled people, and continuously expand coverage.

In response to the dilemma of single fund raising channels, Zhou Yanfang believes thatIt can promote the construction of a diversified financing system,Establish independent funding channels for long-term care insurance. We can refer to Japan’s 40-year-old compulsory insurance mechanism to design a tripartite financing model for individuals + enterprises + finance, and raise funds according to a certain proportion of the salary base (e.g., individuals and enterprises each 0.4%, and finance 0.2%). At the same time, we can explore the establishment of personal long-term care accounts, allow appropriate transfers of funds from personal medical insurance accounts, and explore a family mutual aid mechanism. At the same time, a dynamic adjustment mechanism should be established: a dynamic adjustment model for rates should be established based on the wage growth index and the nursing cost index to ensure the balance of fund revenue and expenditure.

At the same time, Zhou Yanfang suggested thatImplement a national unified ability assessment standard system for the elderly around long-term care needs.“The first is to formulate and implement a national long-term care insurance disability level assessment management method and a designated management method for assessment institutions, clarify nursing needs identification and service quality evaluation standards, and basic service item catalogs, establish nursing processes and operating specifications, and scientifically formulate grading Classification benefits payment policy. The second is to build a professional evaluation team. Each district and county will set up an independent evaluation center, and assessors must pass the national unified qualification examination. The third is to establish a dispute resolution mechanism, establish a three-level review system, and introduce third-party medical evaluation agencies. rdquo;

Focusing on improving the construction of the service supply system,Zhou Yanfang proposed that the first is to strengthen the construction of the nursing talent team, increase talent training efforts, improve the nursing vocational education system, adjust the curriculum in a timely manner and expand the enrollment scale based on the emerging professional needs of health caregivers, elderly ability assessors and other professional needs. A unified national qualification certification system can be established with reference to the Japanese nursing and welfare personnel system.“” The second is to strengthen government support, guide social capital to invest in the field of long-term care services by providing tax incentives, venue policy incentives and other measures, accelerate the cultivation of designated service institutions, and enhance the marketization of long-term care services. Encourage handling agencies to actively participate in the formulation of industry standards, talent training, and development of nursing resources. The third is to make full use of next-generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence, as well as Mobile device, wearable devices, etc., to promote age-friendly technology products such as smart nursing mattresses and remote monitoring systems, and promote the realization of intelligent home care services. Supervision, and building a nationwide unified elderly care service information platform.

Zhou Yanfang suggested,It is also necessary to improve the regulatory coordination mechanism,The first is to establish an inter-departmental coordination committee, led by the leaders in charge of the State Council, with the joint participation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the General Administration of Medical Insurance and other departments to coordinate policy formulation and resource allocation, and the lead department should be clarified in due course. The second is to strengthen fund supervision and service management, build a sound fund supervision mechanism, improve risk management systems such as reporting and complaints, information disclosure, internal control, and fraud methods to ensure fund safety. The third is to introduce a third-party supervision mechanism, strengthen supervision of handling services, nursing services and other behaviors, strengthen cost control, implement budget management, and explore appropriate payment methods.