Jin Guanping: Accelerate the full implementation of the Long-term Care Insurance system

Ask AI: How can pilot experience help the nationwide rollout process?

The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Long-Term Care Insurance System.” It proposes that it will take about three years to basically establish a long-term care insurance system that fits China’s basic national conditions. This means the long-term care insurance system will move from limited pilots to a full nationwide rollout. This initiative is of great significance and far-reaching impact.

Properly addressing long-term care security for people with disabilities is a matter that concerns the happiness of every household. For people with disabilities, especially those with severe disabilities, long-term care insurance is a pressing need. Professional care services will effectively ease the difficulties faced by people with disabilities in meeting basic daily needs such as bathing, haircuts, eating, and medication change, greatly improving their quality of life. For families, long-term care insurance can lessen the financial and day-to-day caregiving burden, and help resolve the dilemma of “one person becoming disabled and the whole family becoming unbalanced.”

The establishment and implementation of the long-term care insurance system is a systematic project and a long-term task. Since the long-term care insurance pilot began in 2016, this system has gone through a course of “pilot—assessment—re-pilot—re-assessment—launching a full rollout,” achieving positive results. The coverage areas expanded from 15 in the beginning to 92 by the end of 2025. The number of people covered has already reached 308 million, with cumulative fund expenditures exceeding 100 billion yuan, providing care service support for more than 3.3 million people with disabilities—making “urgent concerns” become “reassuring and reassuring.” In the next three years, the long-term care insurance system will achieve full coverage across the country, which is also an important step for China’s social security system to move toward higher-quality development.

The long-term care insurance system is not only a “stabilizing pillar” for people’s livelihoods, but also a “catalyst” for promoting economic and social development. It transforms the past model of family-only caregiving into a system guarantee led by the government with shared responsibility by society, making the social structure more stable. In addition, from the perspective of economic development, long-term care for people with disabilities can give rise to new industries such as disability assessments, professional nursing care, research and development of rehabilitation equipment, and assistive device leasing, thereby attracting social capital investment. Data show that since the long-term care insurance pilot, it has already driven more than 60 billion yuan in investment, and has also created a large number of jobs.

To accelerate the establishment of a long-term care insurance system, all parties must work together with sustained effort. Governments at all levels should take on their responsibilities, and in light of local conditions, further refine policies so that work related to enrollment, benefits, services, and supervision is all done well—so that policies take root and benefit more insured people; relevant departments such as medical insurance and finance should coordinate and cooperate, improve supporting policies, strictly manage funds, and standardize services, so the system can run safely and sustainably; long-term care insurance agencies and nursing institutions should also actively participate, cultivate more professional nursing institutions and practitioners, improve service quality, and form a good situation of “government leading, society participating, the market driving, and families fulfilling their responsibilities.” In addition, it is necessary to fully publicize and interpret the policy through multiple channels, so the public can fully understand enrollment methods and benefit standards, and gather a strong joint force to advance this people’s livelihood project. (Author: Jin Guoping. Source: Economic Daily)