The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a new long-term care services program that aims to more than quadruple the number of users covered by the plan to 738,000 people.
The “long-term services care program 2.0” is to replace the current 10-year program that ends this year. The new 10-year program is expected to increase the number of users from 170,000 to 738,000 next year by extending the scope of services covered to include people aged 50 and above with dementia; Pingpu Aborigines aged 55 to 64 with a disability; people aged 49 and below with a mental or physical disability; and people aged 65 and above with clinical frailty.
The current program is limited to people aged 65 and above, Aborigines from the highlands aged 55 and above, people aged 50 and above with a mental or physical disability, and older people living alone.
These people will continue to be covered by the new program, Ministry of Health and Welfare Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lu Pau-ching (呂寶靜) said.
The program is to establish a community-based service network by building three-tiered long-term care facilities: tier-A general service centers, tier-B daycare service centers and tier-C local service stations, Lu said.
The three-tier system is to provide home healthcare, daycare, respite services, rehabilitation programs, assistance device services, transportation and dietary services.
While tier-A and tier-B centers are to be established at existing facilities, such as hospitals, local health bureaus and facilities operated by long-term care service providers, the construction of tier-C service networks are to be one of the program’s main focuses to increase service accessibility at the community level, Lu said.
“It is hoped that there will at least be one tier-C station in every three villages or boroughs to offer basic services, such as respite care, meal delivery, and disability prevention and rehabilitation programs,” she said.
There will be a tier-B center in every junior-high school district, and a tier-A center in every administrative district, she said.
A total of NT$17.8 billion (US$567.67 million) will be allocated to the program next year, and about one-third of the budget is to be used to develop the three-tier system and another one-third to provide home care services.
Economically disadvantaged groups will be given concessions in using the services, which will either be free of charge or require a payment of 10 percent of the cost, she said, adding that 42 percent of the program’s users belong to this group.
Average-income users will have to pay 30 percent of the cost, she added.
The new program is expected to create 50,000 jobs, including care workers, managers and medical staff, she said, adding that there are currently 9,057 care workers nationwide.
The program will be funded with the estate and gift tax, and the tobacco tax and surcharge. The government is still discussing the scale of a planned increase in tobacco tax and surcharge.
Executive Yuan spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) reiterated the government’s stance to fund long-term care services with tax revenue instead of an insurance system, as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been calling for, saying that the establishment of a well-rounded long-term care system depends on multiple and stable sources of tax revenue.
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