October 17th is the Double Ninth Festival in China. The "Economic Information Daily" reporter was informed that China’s residents’ old-age security has once again ushered in multiple benefits in recent days. In terms of increasing pension benefits, Shenzhen and other places have intensively raised basic pensions, and many places are higher than national standards; 22 institutions compete for occupational annuity investors, and 700 billion yuan occupational annuity will enter the market soon; In improving the quality of old-age care, the combination of medical care and nursing care is accelerating, and the sixth insurance of social security — — Long-term care insurance has also begun to enter the full implementation period.
Since the beginning of this year, many places have been raising the basic pension standard, and many places are higher than the minimum basic pension standard set by the state in 88 yuan. The People’s Social Security Bureau and the Finance Bureau of Xinjiang Corps issued a notice on the 15th, and since January 1, 2018, the minimum standard of basic old-age insurance for urban and rural residents has been raised from 115 yuan per person per month to 140 yuan per person per month, and the 25 yuan has been increased. A few days ago, Shenzhen proposed that from this year, if the household registration in this city is less than 8 years old, the basic pension will be raised from the original monthly 240 yuan to 280 yuan; Since the month following the 8th anniversary of the city’s household registration, the basic pension has been raised from 360 yuan to 420 yuan every month.
The potential of the second pillar of old-age security is expected to be further released. Hunan Province recently issued a document to encourage employers to establish enterprise annuities, further clarifying the provisions on filing methods, payment methods, supervision and management of enterprise annuities. Occupational annuities will also enter the market. On October 16th, 22 institutions went to the Pension Insurance Management Center of the central state organs to receive the tender documents and compete for the qualification of occupational annuity investment managers of the central state organs and institutions. In the opinion of experts, occupational annuities, like pensions, rely on the capital market to effectively maintain and increase the value of funds.
In terms of improving the quality of old-age care, the combination of medical care and long-term care insurance, which is accelerating, is highly anticipated. The data shows that there are about 4,000 medical and nursing institutions in China, with more than 1 million beds. "At present, the pilot network of combining medical care at the national, provincial and municipal levels has basically taken shape." Wang Lijuan, director of the Department of Health for the Aged in National Health Commission, said recently. However, she also admitted that a series of supportive policies and measures combining medical care with nursing care have not been implemented in some places. The absence of long-term care insurance and the lack of professionals also hinder the promotion of the combination of medical care and nursing.
Guan Bo, an associate researcher at the Institute of Social Studies of China Macroeconomic Research Institute, said that the future reform of combining medical care with nursing care will focus on three aspects: on the supply side, make good use of the existing medical and health service network, and give play to the supporting role of grassroots medical and health institutions in providing for the elderly in home communities and institutions. On the demand side, accelerate the guidance of the health concept of the elderly, and change from focusing on treatment to focusing on health management. On the payment side, accelerate the development of a multi-level care security system to provide stable financing for the combination of medical care and nursing services.
Zhang Yinghua, an executive researcher at the World Social Security Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, told the Economic Information Daily that all the pilot schemes for long-term care insurance were released at the end of last year, and now they have entered the full implementation period. The research on long-term care insurance is still intensive, and more and more non-pilot areas have begun to actively study programs. The implementation of the long-term insurance system is conducive to improving the quality of old-age care, and its pulling effect on the old-age care service industry is also emerging.