Underlining the need to develop a solid policy on long-term care for an aging population, president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that she plans to allocate NT$30 billion (US$893.73 million) from taxes and NT$3 billion from the regular government budget to build a long-term care system.
Speaking at an academic seminar to mark the 10th anniversary of the Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Tsai said that providing long-term care services would be a top priority for the next government, which will be sworn in on May 20.
An intergovernmental agency long-term care panel will be formed to carry out the task by pooling resources from various sectors across the nation, she said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Tsai’s platform on long-term care services, outlined during her presidential campaign, advocates hiking sales, gift and inheritance taxes to finance the proposed services for elderly people.
Tsai also said that hospitals’ efforts to improve senior care services over the past 10 years and the Veterans Affairs Council’s experience of caring for elderly people over the decades would lay the foundation for the establishment of a future long-term care system in the nation.
As its population is aging faster than many other developed countries, Taiwan has to cope with the challenges this presents, Tsai said.
People aged 65 and over accounted for 10 percent of the nation’s population in 2010, and this percentage is expected to exceed 20 percent by 2025, making Taiwan one of a few “super-aging” countries, Tsai added.
This aging trend is already irreversible and stimulus measures aimed at boosting the birthrate will not help turn the tide, she said, adding that finding ways to cope with problems resulting from a rapidly aging society has therefore become the most pressing issue facing the country.
Tsai said that the Democratic Progressive Party has devised several long-term care programs, including one she proposed during the presidential election campaign that would establish a national aging and health research center.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital, National Yang Ming University and the National Health Research Institutes have jointly set up an integrated center on aging and health to lay the foundation for future national aging and health research center in order to facilitate domestic development and international cooperation in this area, Tsai said.
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