2018 Volume 59 Issue 2 Pages 15-23
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the positioning of and policy responses to fee-based homes for the elderly by examining the way the Act on Social Welfare for the Elderly impacts such facilities. The enactment process involved claims that fee-based homes for the elderly are necessary, and, in doing so, it established low-cost homes for the elderly as care facilities treated as Type 1 social welfare services under the Social Welfare Services Act. As a result, these fee-based homes were positioned outside the frame of social welfare services, and policy responses included regulations. However, such policy responses did not consider the provision of care services by for-profit corporations as an issue. That is to say, those involved in managing facilities for the elderly, led by the Elderly Care Provider Association, advocated the necessity of fee-based homes for the elderly; for-profit corporations did not play a lead role at the outset.
