May 21-28, 2020

The annual NPC and CPPCC time, representatives on the elderly service industry topics mainly focused on two aspects: talent and long-term care insurance.

Talent is a long-standing issue in China's elderly care sector, especially this year after a shortage of staff in nursing homes during the pandemic.

A second trial of long-term care insurance was launched earlier this month, four years after the first. According to media reports, several deputies suggested that the long-term protection insurance system should be legalized.

The following is a small edition from various media excerpts on behalf of some suggestions, for your reference.

We will strengthen the ranks of elderly care workers

Yang Zhensheng, Director of Tangshan Civil Affairs Center, Director of Tangshan Sanatorium for Paraplegia

Unstable income and low sense of professional honor are the main reasons why no one wants to be an old-age care worker. Therefore, I think efforts should be made in the following aspects:

• It is suggested that old-age care workers should be included in the scope of vocational skill level recognition and subsidy policies to enhance the occupational attractiveness of old-age care workers.

• Promote the formulation of professional skill level evaluation policies for elderly care workers, and improve the salary level, social security and social status of employees;

• Establish reasonable salary promotion mechanism and job promotion mechanism to expand career planning space for employees. (Source: Economic Daily News)

The national vocational examination system for elderly care workers will be restored as soon as possible

Lu Xin Professor, Department of Accounting, School of Management, Jinan University

Lu's five tips on retirement:

• Restore the national vocational examination system for elderly care workers as soon as possible;

• Some suggestions for further popularization and improvement of long-term care insurance development;

• Strengthen top-level design, overall planning, and launch the unified Internet old-age care information platform at the provincial and municipal levels as soon as possible;

• Some suggestions on strengthening the construction of geriatric medicine and the education of professional and technical personnel for the aged;

• Encourage the transformation of secondary hospitals into rehabilitation hospitals, nursing homes and geriatric hospitals.

The national vocational examination system for elderly care workers will be restored as soon as possible

• The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security should clearly stipulate that the elderly care worker is an independent professional work, and clarify the professional qualifications and vocational training requirements of the elderly care worker.

• Reinstate the vocational examination system for elderly care workers. Vocational qualification certificates shall be universal throughout the country.

• The Ministry of Civil Affairs shall issue a unified plan for the future training direction of elderly care workers, specifying the training method, qualification certificate, training plan, protection of rights and implementation of obligations.

• At the same time, efforts should be made to create a good social atmosphere, forming a social atmosphere of respect for the elderly, talents and labor. (Source: Southern Metropolis Daily)

The training of elderly care personnel will be included in the development plan for health personnel

Li Nannan, Assistant to the president of Changqing Le Ling Nursing Home, Nantong, Jiangsu

In the context of the epidemic, it is necessary to raise the shortage of nurses. It is hoped that relevant departments will bring the training of elderly care personnel into the development plan of health personnel, so that they can have the channels for promotion and development, and formulate encouraging policies to allow more young people to join the service group for the elderly.

"Most of our nursing staff are post-90s, and from this year, there are also post-00s. I hope we can better retain and train them, so that more young and professional people can devote themselves to the pension business." (Source: Xinhua Daily)

The long-term care insurance system is written into the Law on the Protection of the rights and interests of the elderly

Chief Research Librarian, Qimei Capital Museum

The elderly with disability and serious illness are faced with problems such as low level of nursing expertise, inadequate management and high cost. Especially in this COVID-19 outbreak, the importance of strengthening care services for the elderly has become even more important.

It is found that the long-term care insurance system which was tried out a few years ago is very necessary and feasible in practice. It is suggested that the long-term care insurance system should be written into the law on the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly, and the current pilot measures should be truly translated into concrete implementation. (Source: Beijing Daily)

We will accelerate legislation on the long-term care insurance system

Zhou Yanfang deputy General manager, China Pacific Life Insurance Shanghai Branch

In 2019, more than 60 cities across the country launched long-term care insurance trials, of which commercial insurance companies participated in about 70%.

However, as a new social security system, the financing methods, operation modes and relevant standards of the pilot areas are different, which brings some obstacles to the future system unification. It is suggested to speed up the legislation of long-term care insurance system.

There are seven main aspects that we hope to include in the legislation.

1. Financing: The financing mode of long-term care insurance should be clarified through legislation, and the responsibility of individual payment should be emphasized. For the insured with medical insurance personal account, the payment can be deducted by individual account. The standard of financing suggests that after considering a number of factors such as individual income, age, increased risk and social equity, the proportion of contributions relative to individual income should be determined. Long-term care insurance funds can partly come from the medical insurance pooling fund at the initial stage, but they can be managed separately with special funds. The management mechanism is implemented according to the relevant management system of current social insurance funds.

2. Evaluation: Accelerate the exploration and establishment of a national unified standard system for daily living ability assessment, long-term care needs identification and grade assessment, and directly enter the method after the determination; The overall planning region is required to establish the qualification requirements for the access of assessors, determine the supervision and management departments, and strictly control the entry and exit of long-term care insurance benefits.

3. Payment: The payment scope of long-term care insurance shall be clarified through legislation to avoid unclear definition of rights and responsibilities of long-term care insurance and other social insurance and social welfare, which will affect people's cognition and cause fund waste; Emphasize the individual's own responsibility for treatment, for special groups, through other social welfare subsidies; As a whole, the competent authorities of the payment audit and inspection shall be identified in the region, the fund operation shall be analyzed regularly, and risk management systems such as reporting and complaint, information disclosure, internal control and fraud prevention shall be established.

4. Service: The catalog of service items adopts the mode of overall planning and regional self-control, and clarifies the technical management norms and competent departments such as service connotation, service standard and quality evaluation.

5, handling: as a whole the area set up social insurance agencies, can according to work demand, the implementation of government-led, social participation and market operation mode of tube being separated, the role of third party clearly positioning, and improve the mechanism of orgnaization of long-term care insurance of a third party management, and provide a third party to the orgnaization of agency of offers certain tax breaks.

6, professional team: the western system of national professional career system, set up the medical care professional, and adopts hierarchical culture, hierarchical use policy, law can provide service for long-term care insurance personnel qualification requirements, get personnel engaged in old-age care professional career growth track, salary and social respect.

7. Credit investigation: Institutional and personal credit investigation systems related to elderly service personnel have been established nationwide, including care institutions/personnel and evaluation institutions/personnel. For care personnel whose integrity does not meet the standards, long-term care insurance is not allowed to be provided, so as to improve the social credibility of designated social insurance institutions. (Source: Thepaper.cn)