Mayor Choi Hyun-deok calls for 80% national funding for long-term care costs

Namyangju Mayor Choi Hyun-deok is asking the National Assembly to make the state pay at least 80% of long-term care costs for basic-livelihood recipients, as the current system places the full burden on local governments.

Choi said the rapidly growing demand for welfare services is difficult for basic local governments to handle with limited resources. He argued that areas where nursing homes are concentrated should not also have to absorb a disproportionate share of care costs.

The mayor made the proposal during a meeting with Kwon Chil-seung, policy committee chair of the Democratic Party of Korea. He called for revisions to the Long-Term Care Insurance Act and its enforcement decree so that the state would cover, or provide at least 80% of, costs for medical-aid recipients using nursing homes or receiving home-visit care.

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It is difficult to handle the rapidly growing demand for welfare services with only the limited resources of basic local governments.

Under the current system, the national government covers 80% of medical-aid costs when recipients receive hospital treatment. But local governments pay the full cost when recipients enter nursing homes or receive home-care services. In Gyeonggi province, the provincial and city or county governments share the expense. The local-government cost for one nursing-home resident receiving benefits averages about 32.4 million won a year.

Namyangju submitted comparative data showing that its long-term care burden, including provincial funding, reached about 77.6 billion won, or 8.3% of the provincewide total. That exceeded the figures for Goyang and Bucheon, making Namyangju the province’s largest payer. The city had 135 elderly care facilities at the end of last year, second only to Goyang’s 168. The proposal follows concerns that older benefit recipients unable to find facilities in Seoul and elsewhere are moving to northern Gyeonggi, where lower land and building prices have drawn care facilities.

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The structure in which the burden is concentrated in areas with many care facilities must change. The state should provide at least 80% of long-term care costs, as it does for general medical aid.