According to the approved Act, the Long-term Care Insurance System will be started in the year 2000. It will cover bothe community care and institutional care services for older and middle-aged persons aged 40 and over. In the case of middle-aged persons between 40 and 64, however, the insurance will only cover the care services to those who suffer from such age-related illnesses as stroke, or senile dementia.
Contributions to the program will be collected from persons aged 40 and over. This means that retired older persons will also be obliged to contribute. According to the Act, the contributions of retired older persons are to be deducted from the payment of the public pension. The contribution of middle-aged persons are to be collected along with their contribution to public sickness insurance programs.
The new long-term care insurance is to be financed with insurance contributions (1/2) and general revenue (1/2). Therefore, in order to cope with the predicted conspicuous increase in the amount of general revenue due to this system and other related expenditures in the coming highly aging society, the National Government raised the rate of the consumption tax from 3 percent to 5 percent from April, 1997. The outline of the new Public Long-term Care Insurance is given at the end of Part IV.
White the draft of the Act was in the process of discussions at the related government advisory councils and public bodies, and later in the process of deliberations at the National Diet, one heard quite a number of opinions, both pro and con, through various kinds of media. It seemed, however, that a great majority of Japanese people were in favor of the introduction of the public long-term care insurance. It is expected that the new program will greatly raise the level of Japan's health and welfare services for the elderly.
＜ Possible impact of the new public long-term care insurance ＞
In closing the epilogue, the author wants to stress the anticipated revolutionaly impact of the public long-term care insurance on our traditional value system which so far has been placing the primary responsibility to care for aging parents on children, however difficult it may be. Even at present, ordinary Japanese middle-aged people usually think that children should take care of their aging parents by all means.
