Better support sought for graying populace

Integrating senior-friendly home renovation into China's long-term care insurance system and building a combined "renovation plus service" support mechanism could help the country better cope with the challenges of a rapidly aging population, said a national legislator on Monday.

Yu Xubo, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress, said as China's population continues to age rapidly, home-based care has become the preferred option for most elderly people.

Ensuring that seniors, particularly those who are disabled or partially disabled, can live safely and with dignity in familiar surroundings has become a key part of the country's strategy to address demographic change, said Yu, who is also chairman of China General Technology (Group) Holding Co Ltd, a Beijing-based centrally administered State-owned enterprise.

However, efforts to make homes more aging-friendly still face several challenges. High renovation costs, a shortage of professional services and weak long-term support mechanisms have made such upgrades difficult for many households to afford or use effectively, affecting the quality of life of elderly residents.

China currently has around 300 million people aged 60 and above, a figure projected to exceed 400 million by around 2035 and account for more than 30 percent of the population, creating growing demand for elderly support and long-term care services nationwide, according to a study released last year by the Institute of Finance and Banking under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

To address these challenges, China has been advancing two key policy initiatives simultaneously. One is the long-term care insurance system, which aims to provide financial support and care services for people with long-term disabilities through a social insurance framework, helping cover basic daily care and medical needs, said the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The other is a national program to improve home and community-based eldercare services for low-income seniors. Supported by government-managed public welfare lottery funds, the program offers a combination of senior-friendly home modifications and door-to-door care services, said the ministry.

But the two initiatives have yet to work effectively in tandem. While long-term care insurance focuses primarily on service provisions, the renovation program targets improvements to the living environment, leaving a gap between care services and housing support.

Yu said closer policy coordination and resource integration at the national level will be needed to build a more comprehensive support system for aging in place.

He said China could strengthen policy coordination by integrating senior-friendly home renovations into the long-term care insurance system, allowing basic upgrades such as care beds and safety handrails to be covered by insurance. The country could also explore tiered reimbursement standards linked to disability assessments and pilot funding coordination between insurance and fiscal support.

"Meanwhile, the government could issue unified national guidelines covering assessment, renovation, care services and settlement procedures, while encouraging integrated service providers," said Yu, adding that a multidimensional evaluation system tracking health outcomes and service efficiency would help ensure sustainable funding and stronger accountability.

Yuan Xin, a professor of population and development economics at Nankai University in Tianjin, said deepening the integration of long-term care insurance with senior-friendly home renovation policies and scaling up proven pilot models into a universally accessible system will be a key step in addressing challenges in home-based eldercare and building a more efficient and sustainable support framework.

Instead of remaining a targeted program for limited groups, the approach should be institutionalized as a broader system benefiting all disabled elderly people and helping extend integrated medical and care services directly into households, Yuan said.

zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn