A decade of public long-term care insurance in South Korea: Policy lessons for aging countries

Abstract

South Korea proactively introduced public long-term care insurance (LTCI) in 2008 when older people were only about one-tenth of the total population. At that time, Korea switched from a tax-based, local-government-operated LTC program targeting low-income older people to the current universal public LTCI run by the National Health Insurance Service, the single public insurer. The LTCI program provides a comprehensive package of home- and institution-based care mainly targeting older people who need assistance in daily living. Over the past decade, the program has continued to expand its population and service coverage: older people in high need have been covered, and an infrastructure for service provision has been established. Future agendas include financial sustainability, care coordination, and the role of local governments. Korea’s experiences suggest having an LTCI separate from the NHI has the benefit of potential de-medicalization of LTC, which, in turn, creates challenges for the coordination of health care and LTC. A centralized LTCI system with a single payer has the benefit of bigger risk-pooling, but this may become a barrier to designing integrated community care systems at the local level. There is a tradeoff between population coverage, benefits/cost coverage, and fiscal sustainability.