보건복지부 영문홈페이지

The Twenty-Second Public Engagement Roundtable:

Healthy and Fulfilling Senior Life

Shaping the Future for 10 Million Senior Citizens:

Developing Policies for Enhanced Senior Welfare and Happiness

– More housing for the senior citizens, provision of sufficient meals,

more home visitation services, and less burden from nursing care –

On March 21, 2024 (Thursday), the government held the “Twenty-Second Public Engagement Roundtable: Healthy and Fufilling Senior Life.” in Wonju City, Gangwon-do. Wonju has the highest senior population in Gangwon-do region and serves as South Korea's representative city of health. It is home to the National Health Insurance Service and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, both dedicated to alleviating the burden of medical expenses for the populace while ensuring access to superior healthcare services.

The Roundtable was joined by a diverse group of citizens, family members of the senior ones, professionals, and experts. The senior citizens who attended the Roundtable stressed the need for more ‘silver’ housing, meals at senior centers, and exercise programs, while family members asked for policy support for dementia patients and less financial burden from nursing care.

The government affirmed its commitment to fully incorporate the diverse opinions raised during the Roundtable and work towards building a country where senior citizens can lead a healthy and fulfilling senior life. Key improvements included the following.

First, the government will ensure comfortable and safe daily life. In order to supply more residences that offer a combination of meals and leisure activities to senior citizens in the low-income or middle-income groups, the government will re-introduce the Ownership Housing for Senior Welfare, along with new types of senior housing such as Silver Stay and Healthcare REITs. The plan includes increasing the annual supply of Senior Welfare Housing (from 1,000 to 3,000 units) and diversifying its types to facilitate supply at city centers. The government will also gradually increase the meals provided at senior centers (currently, 42% of senior centers provide meals on 3.6 days per week on average), in connection with senior employment. The government will provide meal delivery services to the senior citizens with limited mobility, promote meal services utilizing communal spaces of apartment complexes, expand the Emergency Safety Services to ensure their safety, while also fortifying measures to prevent elderly abuse and improving transportation safety.

Second, the government will foster lively and healthy living environments. The government will vitalize sports facilities such as senior-friendly public sports centers and park golf courses, and improve the sports activity incentive point system for the senior citizens to redeem the points for medical expenses. This year, the government has added an unprecedented 147,000 jobs for senior citizens, and raised their wages by the largest margin in six years. It will continue to provide jobs to more than 10% of the senior population to ensure that capable ones can find stable work in the future. The government will also support digital education, including how to use kiosks, at senior centers and senior welfare centers, and turn more than 2,000 senior centers into smart senior centers by this year to enhance digital accessibility. The government will provide heating and grain subsidies to unregistered senior centers, and prepare measures for institutional improvements.

Third, the government will develop more home visitation medical and care services. The government will expand Long-Term Care Home Health Centers (95 in 2024) nationwide so that senior citizens can receive medical services at home rather than in hospitals, and reduce the copayment rate paid by the patients with severe disease for home visitation services (30% to 15%). The government will also introduce Integrated Home Care Centers that provide home and visiting care. The amount of home care benefits for senior citizens suffering from severe diseases will be gradually increased to the level provided to care facilities, along with a pilot project for customized dementia care to be launched in the second half of this year that provides integrated health care support for seniors who have dementia.

Fourth, the government will lessen the burden of patient care for senior citizens and their families. To ease the burden of patient care, it will introduce a pilot project to support caregiving in nursing hospitals in April this year, and expand the integrated nursing and caregiving services, focusing on senior citizens suffering from severe conditions. To ensure safe discharge of the seniors, the government will increase rehabilitation medical centers and establish plans to introduce convalescent beds. An integrated assessment system for medical, nursing, and care needs will be adopted, and integrated support centers will be established in Si/Gun/Gu (cities, counties, and districts) areas for systematical linkage of the necessary services.

The government plans to develop specific measures to implement the plans as it works on the enforcement decree and enforcement rules for the Act on Integrated Support for Local Healthcare, including Care and Caregiving, which the National Assembly approved this February. ///