The Policy Making Process of Long-Term Care Insurance

Abstract

This study investigates the policy making process of the Long-Term Care Insurance which will massively restructure the way health and welfare services are provided for frail elderly. By specifically looking at the process in which policy makers came to share the goals of the new program, this study shows that the policy learning through the interaction between the Ministry of Health and Welfare officials, related interest groups, and specialized politicians played a substantial role in designing the fundamentals of elderly care. By implication, we need an analytical framework of cross-national comparison, which takes into account not only the variation in terms of state and administrative structure, but also the political climate given the institutional constraints, as well as the shared policy ideas among specialists.