Financing Long-Term Care in an Ageing Region: Country Experiences and Implications for the Western Pacific

More than 245 million people in the Western Pacific are aged 65 or over, and this number is expected to double by 2050. As family-based care weakens, the need for long-term care (LTC) is rising quickly, yet most countries do not have a dedicated system or financing for it. Without one, the costs fall on households, particularly women who reduce or leave work to provide care, and increasingly on health budgets.

This webinar, co-organized with the National Health Insurance Service of the Republic of Korea, a WHO Collaborating Centre, brings together the experiences of the Republic of Korea, China and Indonesia, three countries at different stages of building their LTC systems, to discuss how countries can raise, pool and use resources to keep LTC sustainable and equitable as their populations age. 

At this webinar, you will:  

• Understand the main approaches to financing LTC, including how resources are raised, pooled and used to purchase services, and the trade-offs between them. 

• Learn from the experiences of the Republic of Korea, China and Indonesia at different stages of LTC system development. 

• Discuss practical implications for countries in the Western Pacific that are designing or expanding their LTC systems. 

Who should attend 

Ministries of Health, national health insurance agencies, ministries of finance and social welfare, health financing teams, development partners, academe and researchers. 

Organizer  

Health Policy and Strategy Unit, Division of Health Systems and Services, WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific. For inquiries, contact: wprohps@who.int