2009 年 21 巻 E1 号 p. 227-245
Public long-term care insurance was first introduced in Japan in 2000. Along with increasing the volume of benefits provided by insurance, a recent reform of public long-term care insurance de-emphasized home care for elderly individuals and eliminated coverage for housing and food expenses. At the same time, income has decreased in elderly households and the income gap among Japanese has gradually expanded. Introduction of policies reducing the number of hospital beds and promoting home care settings is narrowing individuals’ opportunities to receive insurance benefits while simultaneously increasing the economic burden placed on caregivers.
In this paper, I aim to identify the possible actions caregivers faced with increasing care costs may take in order to alleviate their care burden, and clarify whether private long-term care insurance can relieve caregiver burden. Econometric analysis revealed that 1）for those caring for elderly relatives, withdrawing money from savings, changing jobs, and purchasing private insurance have no significant effect on net income level; 2）younger individuals tend to change jobs in order to improve their situation; 3）changing jobs is selected significantly more often than withdrawing money from savings in home care cases; 4）those not requiring care tend to favor high premium-high reimbursement private long-term care insurance; and 5）private long-term care insurance plans providing sufficient compensation and approval-related benefit schemes may be favored by caregivers
Preparing for the huge costs of long-term care by saving or changing jobs may be quite unpredictable under the current trends of economic instability and differences in income expansion. Therefore, the role of private long-term care insurance in supplementing public insurance may be significant. However, no new private long-term care insurance plans exist in the market. It is therefore necessary to examine the reform of public long-term care insurance and introduce flexible measures such as cash payment schemes.
