The long-awaited passage of the draft Long-term Care Services Act on May 15 marks a major step forward in completing a long-term care services network for Taiwan, Premier Mao Chi-kuo said today.
The new law, which had been under legislative review for four years, will form the legal basis for promoting long-term care services, Mao said after hearing the Ministry of Health and Welfare's (MOHW) report on the impacts of the act.
While the act is expected to provide longer and more comprehensive care for seniors with physical and mental impairments, such services are only possible if financial resources are sufficient, the premier noted. With limited tax revenues, the government alone will not be able to support the system, and long-term care will not likely be implemented as social welfare.
For these reasons, it is important to bring in long-term care insurance to fund and ensure care services into the future. Discussions and negotiations will also be needed to find a balanced way of dividing premium payments among the insured, the employer and the government, the premier said. The government is also pushing an accompanying long-term care insurance bill to finance the care needed by disabled persons.
As for the 80 percent of senior citizens who are healthy or relatively healthy, the MOHW is drafting a white paper on the aging society that emphasizes health and community participation. Premier Mao asked other agencies to unite community volunteers, nonprofit organizations, social enterprises and the business sector in creating a happy, healthy living environment for senior citizens.
According to the MOHW, the Long-term Care Services Act will create a fund to finance the infrastructure for long-term care, while the cost of care services will be financed by long-term care insurance. The long-term care insurance bill being drafted by the MOHW is expected to go to the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan soon. The ministry hopes the bill will be passed by the Legislature before 2017 and implemented by 2020.
In addition, the ministry is devising complementary measures including regulations for long-term care institutions, subsidies and incentives for developing long-term care resources, standards for establishing long-term care institutions, and requirements for restructuring existing institutions.