Xinhua Commentary · People's Livelihood Is No Small Matter | Protecting Respectable Elderly Care with Systemic Warmth

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 26—
Topic: Protect dignity in aging with institutional warmth

　Xinhua News Agency reporters Peng Yunjia and Xu Penghang

　Having care when sick and support in old age—this is what hundreds of millions of people look forward to, and it is also the direction of national policy.

　The General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have recently issued the “Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Long-Term Care Insurance System,” which clearly calls for basically establishing a long-term care insurance system suited to China’s basic national conditions within about three years. As a major institutional arrangement for improving the social security system, long-term care insurance, through a pooling-and-redistribution model, helps ease the burden on countless families with persons with disabilities in need of care, effectively addressing the dilemma of “one person becoming unable to live independently, and the whole family becoming unbalanced,” and safeguarding human dignity in life.

　Long-term continuous caregiving and high out-of-pocket expense are not only a burden that ordinary families find hard to bear, but also a challenge in people’s livelihood security.

　Relevant departments have explored long-term care insurance since many years ago. By enrolling everyone and pooling funds, they provide basic living care and medical nursing for people with disabilities in need of care, and reimburse the care expenses incurred. From eating and shampooing to routine medication changes and urinary catheter care… these seemingly minor services not only enable people with disabilities in need of care to receive professional support, but also can reduce the burden on family members. By the end of 2025, pilot areas’ funds have already paid out more than 100 billion yuan, providing warm support for more than 3.3 million people in need of care due to disabilities.

　The issuance of this set of opinions means that the long-term care insurance system will be promoted nationwide from pilot areas. This is a systematic project and a long-term task that requires the participation of the whole society. Shortcomings such as insufficient care services, especially high-quality services; a shortage of professional talent; and the need to further improve regulatory systems for service quality must be addressed. Doing this well requires sustained optimization through top-level institutional design and continuous exploration and innovation through grassroots practice—efforts on both fronts to get this good thing done.

　Today, China has 320 million older people aged 60 and above, including about 35 million elderly people who are unable to care for themselves. With the deepening of population aging and declining birth rates, the need for long-term care will keep growing. How to build a more complete social security system, improve the quality of care services, and safeguard health and dignity has become an era-level question that must be answered. On one hand, we should further improve the system in light of changes in population structure, making the safety net tighter and catch-all coverage stronger; on the other hand, it would be beneficial to align with the development trend of artificial intelligence, incorporate intelligent services and supportive assistive devices into policy support, and better meet the needs for diverse services.

　The depth of people’s livelihood security determines the temperature of people’s happiness; the strength of institutional development reflects the precision of national governance. To implement long-term care insurance in a practical and concrete way, we need to carry forward the spirit of “nailing it down,” hammering one nail after another and taking one step after another, so that “being supported in old age” turns from a solemn commitment into a warmth in people’s lives that ordinary people can see and touch. (End)