On December 17, Professor Wu Yushao, Vice President of the Institute of Aging Research of Fudan University and President of the China Association of Social Welfare and Pension Services, released two research results: "Research Report on the Development of Aging Finance" (hereinafter referred to as the "Financial Report") and "Research Report on Long-term Care Insurance" (hereinafter referred to as the "Long-term Care Insurance Report").
In 2022, the elderly population aged 60 and above in the mainland has exceeded 280 million, and it will grow rapidly in the next 10 years, and will exceed 500 million by 2050, accounting for 38.81%, while the elderly population aged 80 and above will account for more than 10%.
The "Long-term Care Insurance Report" shows that the number of elderly people is increasing, and the scale of pension institutions is expanding. Since 2013, under the effect of a number of incentive tools, the number of elderly care beds has been increasing, and the degree of specialization of elderly care institutions has gradually improved. The number of elderly care institutions has been adjusted from 42,500 at the end of 2013 to 40,000 in 2022, and the number of beds has increased from 4.295 million to 5.359 million.
According to the Long-Term Care Insurance Report, long-term care insurance meets the care needs of more disabled elderly people and significantly reduces the burden on family caregivers. As of June 2023, 170 million people have participated in the long-term care insurance system, and more than 2 million people have been enrolled. The implementation of long-term care insurance has reduced the annual per capita burden by about 14,000 yuan. At the same time, long-term care insurance activates the nursing talent market and creates jobs. As of June 2023, 330,000 people have been cared for in designated service institutions in the pilot areas, nearly 10 times that of the initial stage of the pilot (2017).
Peng Xizhe, senior professor of liberal arts at Fudan University and dean of the Institute of Aging, believes that based on international experience and the long-term care insurance pilots that have been carried out in various parts of the mainland, the future system construction of long-term care insurance should clarify the underlying logic of long-term care insurance, guide the specific system design, and improve the financing, evaluation, treatment payment, and system connection details of long-term care insurance, so as to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the system. At the same time, it is necessary to integrate the characteristics of different regions and groups of people, improve the fairness of the system in terms of payment, resource support and coverage of the population, improve the construction of supporting resources for long-term care insurance, and build a stable foundation for the future development of long-term care insurance.
The "Financial Report" introduces the connotation, types, functions, and related operating institutions and models of aging finance, expounds the development status of aging finance in mainland China, and discusses its future development trends. The report summarizes the five main challenges and development opportunities faced by China's aging finance, and puts forward relevant countermeasures and suggestions for the high-quality development of China's aging finance.
The aging population of mainland China has the characteristics of the largest elderly population in the world, the fastest aging speed, the broadest geographical scope, and the largest regional differences, and the most onerous and complex pension tasks. With the theme of "Chinese Modernization and Actively Responding to Population Aging", experts and scholars in the field of aging research in China, as well as representatives from political circles and industry gathered on the campus of Fudan University to discuss in depth how to adopt more scientific, accurate and efficient strategies to deal with population aging and promote Chinese-style modernization.
At the meeting, thirteen doctoral students from Peking University, Chinese Renmin University, Fudan University and other universities were awarded the first Shujun Scholarship. It is reported that the Shujun Scholarship was established by Mr. Peng Xizhe, a senior professor of liberal arts at Fudan University, with a donation of 600,000 yuan in 2018, aiming to encourage more young scholars to devote themselves to the research and practice of Chinese population aging.
On the same day, the "100 Pension" project was launched. Fudan University and Chinese Renmin University jointly led the launch of the "100 Pensions" survey, aiming to explore the feasible path of "Chinese-style pension" through solid investigation and research. The Institute of Aging of Fudan University, the Institute of Gerontology of Chinese University and Hualing Publishing House jointly launched the "Aging China" series of book publishing projects.
In addition, the conference also set up three high-end roundtable forums "High-quality Population Development and Aging Social Governance", "Old-age Security and Aging Social Innovation" and "Construction and Dissemination of Aging Independent Knowledge System", and two thematic forums "Aging Industry and Ageing Finance Forum" and "Young Scholars Forum". More than 400 representatives from more than 30 universities and research institutes across the country, nearly 10 relevant functional departments of local governments, dozens of aging industry institutions, as well as students of the "Ask" Pension Leading Talent Seminar attended the conference.