Korea has the fastest-progressing aging rate in the world. Such a rapid increase in the elderly population will continue to cause various social problems and starting from 2020 when the baby boom generation arrives at senior age, the burden of social support will become a big problem. In this respect, the introduction and operation of long-term care insurance started in July 2008 is becoming increasingly important.
Seven years has already passed since the long-term care insurance system for the elderly was introduced. So far, it has maintained a 3 grade rating system, but it will be reorganized as a 5 grade rating system including a special grade of dementia which will be introduced in July 2014 Its intent is to carry out a stable operation of the system by dividing recipients in an optimal ratio between grades, and providing services in accordance with recipients' needs of care.
To attain this end, the Department of Health and Human Services pre-announced the partial legislative amendment of enforcement ordinances in the long-term care insurance system for the elderly, which highlights establishing a special grade of dementia on March 11, 2014. This amendment mainly aims to carry out a stable operation of the system by splitting and adjusting a scale where the difference between recipients has widened in the same grade by means of lowering the acceptance score for long-term care recipients as well as newly establishing a special grade of dementia for the elderly with dementia who have difficulty in daily living activities but is hard to benefit from the service due to relatively good physical functions. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the introduction of a special grade of dementia will benefit 50,000 more people in additional to the current 380,000 long-term care accreditors, budgeting for 43,700,000,000 won.
Due to the increase in the elderly population as well as geriatric patients, long-term care accreditors will increase vastly, and so will the requirement of public finance. Until now, it has been strived to expand infrastructure focusing on the supply side such as facilities and personnel to settle down this stable system. From now on, it is time to reliably absorb the growing demand for medical care and to arrange measures for the internal stability of the long-term care insurance system and the financial sustainability for this system. It is required to estimate the exact public finances in order to remove financial waste factors in forming the long-term care insurance policy and alleviate the burden of a whole nation. There is also a demand to draw the reasonable and sustainable financial management plan by analyzing the structure of supply and demand for the long-term care insurance and predicting the requirement of public finance.