A Study On Long-Term Care Legal Security For Disabled Elders In China

With the acceleration of aging of population, the number of disabled elders in China has become the biggest worldwide. There are nearly 40 million disabled and partial disabled elders in China. If the number continues to rise on this trend, there will be 487 million people over the age 60 at 2050, including over 50 million disabled and partial disabled elders. The social security system of disabled elders has been attracting more and more attention, and has become an important part of our social security system. The studying for the disabled elders mainly focuses on the field of financial support, while the theoretical research of the long-term care security lags behind seriously in China.At present, China has not yet established the corresponding social security system, disabled elders can only be guaranteed by the pension system and medical insurance system. However, imperfection of these two system and are gaps in the long-term care security system make disabled elders be left with no corresponding pension and medical insurance, the coverage of social assistance and welfare system is narrow, therefore only a few disabled elders can get assistance and aid but the majority cannot. The family pension function weaken rapidly, which leaves the family being unable to take long-term care of its disabled elders. New social pension models, such as community and institution endowment are still at the stage of slow development, the price of which is high, therefore many disabled elders refuse to choose these new models.With the increasing demand for long-term care of disabled elders, as well as the weakening of traditional family pension function, the family has been unable to independently provide long-term care for disabled elders. And due to the lacking of relevant policies, new social pension system advances slowly. The dilemma mentioned above can only be solved by the government making relevant policies and establishing a long-term care security system for disabled elders supported by government, society, families and individuals. The practice of the long-term care security for disabled elders in some districts of China has shown many irreconcilable problems because of the absence of this system. The USA, Japan and Singapore are all well-experienced in coverage, fund raising, supervision and administration and service institutions when take long-term care of disabled elders. China should learn successful experience from these countries and make law to establish a long-term care security system for disabled elders that adapts to the social and economic development status and social background of China. In order to establish a perfect long-term care security system for disabled elders, the government should play a main role in the operating mechanism of the above system, supervise the implementation of the system, make the system be standardized and improved and stabilize the social environment for the operation of the system.