People Power Party Announces 6th Pledge... "Gradual Strengthening of State Responsibility for Caregiving Cost Burden" (Comprehensive)

The People Power Party has announced pledges related to elderly health, including strengthening the state's responsibility for the burden of elderly caregiving costs. They also proposed pledges to provide home medical care and home nursing services for elderly people with mobility difficulties and children who find caregiving burdensome.

Elderly Pledge Announcement by Policy Committee Chairman Yoo Ui-dong Photo by Yonhap News

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On the morning of the 6th at 10 a.m., Yoo Ui-dong, the policy committee chairman of the People Power Party, announced the 6th pledge called the "Strong Tomorrow Pledge for Seniors" at the National Assembly main building. This pledge is related to elderly health. Chairman Yoo stated, "All seniors have devoted themselves to Korea's development," adding, "Since different pledges are needed depending on health levels, we divided the pledges into those for ailing seniors and healthy seniors."

Specifically, they announced plans to strengthen the state's responsibility to alleviate the burden of caregiving costs. To improve caregiving cost support and the quality of caregiving, they plan to first implement caregiver registration and qualification management, and simultaneously promote caregiving cost benefits and year-end tax deductions for caregiving expenses. Additionally, to eradicate caregiving abuse, they will establish a caregiving system in nursing hospitals and expand visiting nursing and visiting care services for young people facing difficulties in advancing their education or employment due to caregiving for chronic illnesses, referred to as family care youth. Chairman Yoo said, "The caregiver registration and qualification management system is the first step toward caregiving cost benefits," adding, "Caregivers must be registered to provide financial support."

They also plan to promote home medical care and home nursing. By linking regular visiting medical care and case management to long-term care services, they will gradually expand home medical care centers and apply home medical services such as treatment planning and visiting medical care and nursing to health insurance beneficiaries including discharged patients and those with severe illnesses. They proposed a Home Nursing Integrated Center that provides nursing services based on referrals and instructions from various institutions such as home medical institutions, general hospitals, and long-term care institutions. They also plan to simplify the application, reception, and information management of elderly medical, nursing, and care services by developing a one-stop service linkage system and establishing an integrated information system. For seniors with dementia who desire it, they plan to distribute location detectors to resolve issues of disappearance and alleviate family anxiety. Han Ji-a, a member of the People Power Party's Emergency Committee, said, "Seniors have difficulty visiting hospitals due to mobility issues, and it is not easy for their children to accompany them every time," adding, "We need to discard the provider-centered system and shift to a consumer-centered system."

Support for elderly meals and daily living will also be provided. They plan to gradually expand lunch provision through senior centers and senior welfare centers to seven days a week and improve the system to spread elderly welfare housing that provides meal and housekeeping services. They will also revise the system to allow flexible use of heating and cooling costs and grain costs support for senior centers. Song Eon-seok, a member of the People Power Party, said, "Not all senior centers are in the same situation. This system allows integrated management of the funds received by senior centers," adding, "If there is money left after paying electricity or gas bills, it can be used more flexibly to buy side dishes." He also explained that the budget for providing lunch seven days a week is not large because the national subsidy rate for heating/cooling costs and grain costs is low.

The pledge also includes building health infrastructure for the elderly. They plan to develop a customized frailty prevention exercise program model for seniors and strengthen preventive health management by organically linking senior centers, senior welfare centers, and various elderly health-related infrastructure and services. They will actively utilize idle land to install park golf courses in green spaces near urban areas, expanding exercise and leisure infrastructure.

The People Power Party formed a pledge development headquarters on the 15th of last month and has been announcing pledges in the form of national parcels. So far, the People Power Party has announced pledges such as low birthrate policies and railroad undergrounding. They also plan to open regional offices to receive region-specific pledges for 17 cities and provinces nationwide. Previously, the People Power Party announced that over 2,000 pledges had been received.

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