In China, Visit Granny or You Might Get Sued

In large part, these are the alarming facts that led to the Law to Protect the Elderly. Much of the legislation is about establishing social security and health care for aging residents. But the actual details of these programs are left for bureaucrats to devise. This isn’t unusual: National Chinese legislation is typically a set of guidelines, with the fine points — including funding mechanisms — left to those expected to implement the provisions.

For example, article 29 of the new law declares: “The state shall gradually establish a long-term care insurance system. Encourage and guide the commercial insurance companies to undertake the long-term care insurance business. For the long-term disabled and older persons with financial difficulties, local governments should provide subsidies according to need.”

That’s it. And then we move on to article 30.

Of course, creating a state-run long-term care insurance system is something many developed countries have struggled to achieve. It is somewhat understandable that the Chinese government is unwilling — or unable — to spell out how precisely it plans to guide its insurance sector to do the all-but-impossible. Similarly, it’s reasonable that — lacking a government program to address the elderly-care issue — the government would emphasize the traditional role of family caregivers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *