Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare (Aug 2020)
Effect Evaluation of the Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) System on the Health Care of the Elderly: A Review
Abstract
Linhong Chen,1,2 Xiaocang Xu3,4 1School of Mathematics and Statistics, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing 400067, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Economics, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing 400067, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Actuarial Studies & Business Analytics, Macquarie University, Sydney 2109, AustraliaCorrespondence: Xiaocang Xu Email [email protected]: How to cope with the rapid growth of LTC (long-term care) needs for the old people without activities of daily living (ADL), which is also a serious hazard caused by public health emergencies such as COVID-2019 and SARS (2003), has become an urgent task in China, Germany, Japan, and other aging countries. As a response, the LTCI (long-term care insurance) system has been executed among European countries and piloted in 15 cities of China in 2016. Subsequently, the influence and dilemma of LTCI system have become a hot academic topic in the past 20 years.Methods: The review was carried out to reveal the effects of the LTCI system on different economic entities by reviewing relevant literature published from January 2008 to September 2019. The quality of 25 quantitative and 24 qualitative articles was evaluated using the JBI and CASP critical evaluation checklist, respectively.Results: The review systematically examines the effects of the LTCI system on different microeconomic entities such as caretakers or their families and macroeconomic entities such as government spending. The results show that the LTCI system has a great impact on social welfare. For example, LTCI has a positive effect on the health and life quality of the disabled elderly. However, the role of LTCI in alleviating the financial burden on families with the disabled elderly may be limited.Conclusion: Implementation of LTCI system not only in reducing the physical and mental health problems of health care recipients and providers, and the economic burden of their families, but also promote the development of health care service industry and further improvement of the health care system. However, the dilemma and sustainable development of the LTCI system is the government needs to focus on in the future due to the sustainability of its funding sources.Keywords: aging society, LTC, long-term care, LTCI, long-term care insurance, fund-raising, effectiveness, dilemma
